Kirby Smart has stepped into a job filled with high expectations and an incredible chance to fail.
The first-year coach may prove to be the next coming of Nick Saban. He may also prove to be Georgia’s next Jim Donnan. That’s quite a disparity.
Smart has a tougher task than most who take over a major-college program. Georgia wasn’t in the tank when it decided to fire Mark Richt, who won 145 games during his 15-season tenure. His teams also won at least 10 games nine times while he was in Athens. There were two conference titles and four more division titles.