A month into the new year, college football has seen significant changes. Legendary head coach Nick Saban announced his retirement, Washington’s Kalen DeBoer took over as the next in line, and Jim Harbaugh is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. The sport will undoubtedly look and feel different in 2024, but one program is unlikely to grumble about it.
Kirby Smart and his football squad fell just short of reaching the collegiate football playoffs in 2023 and earning a third consecutive national championship. The Bulldogs’ historic lengthy winning streak and unrivaled rule over college football were briefly halted by Alabama and Nick Saban. Stop me if you have heard that one before. But, with Saban and the Alabama dynasty that football fans have come to know over the previous decade or so gone, and another great coach, Harbaugh, no longer in the picture, the Bulldogs have plenty of opportunities ahead of them.
When thinking of the ten best coaches in college football, Kirby Smart now gets penciled in at the top with ease. But you’d have a hard time thinking of who to place right behind the two-time national champ. Maybe Dabo Swinney, but Clemson looks to be slowly spiraling out of control by the day. Or how about Brian Kelly? Certainly has had a lot of success but probably not enough to be labeled as the second-best coach in the sport. How about Ryan Day? Multiple college football appearances, annually one of the best teams each year but there still seems to be some questions there. The point is, it’s coach Smart and a decent drop off to the coach right behind him.
While Georgia may have the best coach in the sport by a wide margin, and they have had the most success relative to any other team in this decade, there are some grounds to believe that Georgia will not simply go on to win two or three more national championships in the next five years.
The enlarged college football playoff surely puts a twist in this theory. Not only will a team need to win more games to win a national championship, but there will also be a longer stretch of games in which programs must remain flawless. There will be no tolerance for error over the course of a month’s worth of games, making securing a national crown all the more tough. Another factor could be the current state of college football. If the college football season wasn’t already exhausting, NIL and the transfer portal increase the workload of a college football staff. Both have also helped level the playing field by allowing teams to swiftly change their personnel.
