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Georgia coach Kirby Smart looks up into the crowd before the start of a NCAA college football game between Tennessee and Georgia in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022. News Joshua L Jones
Lincoln Riley, who made the College Football Playoff three straight years from 2017 through 2019 and won four straight Big 12 championships, has fallen from the mountaintop as a college football coach at USC. He had one good 2022 season and has then cratered in 2023 and 2024. Riley’s downfall at USC has been pronounced. If he can’t rescue himself in 2025 with a big season, he could be gone before 2026. Riley is the most shocking coaching story of the decade, in terms of a successful coach suddenly losing his fastball. That said, he isn’t the only coach who has gotten noticeably worse in recent years. Kirby Smart has to be included in this conversation after Georgia’s ugly 23-10 loss to Notre Dame and the improving Marcus Freeman in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday, deepening the SEC’s playoff problems.
Some people will say that Kirby just didn’t have the horses. Gunner Stockton was not ready to win the game. Georgia just wasn’t that good a team this season. Georgia’s offensive line got chewed up, and the left tackle simply could not protect Stockton in this game. Also, an inactive Georgia player, Parker Jones, got carried away and bumped an official on the sideline for a crucial 15-yard penalty which deprived Georgia of a red-zone 1st and 10. Many things happened in the Sugar Bowl which cannot be laid at Kirby Smart’s feet. That’s true. However, Smart still coached a terrible game.
We’re going to look at Kirby Smart and the other non-Lincoln Riley coaches who might not be as good as we think they are anymore.
KIRBY SMART HUGE FAILURE VERSUS NOTRE DAME
Kirby Smart Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Was the Sugar Bowl simply a case of Georgia not being…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lincoln-riley-isnt-only-coach-192543333.html
Author : Trojans Wire
Publish date : 2025-01-03 19:25:00
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