Kirby Smart embarks on post-Bama coaching career

“This is my first Media Days”, Kirby Smart said not long after stepping up to the podium for the first time as Georgia’s head coach, “but I’m no stranger to the SEC”. “I’m at a great place – there’s not many great, great jobs out there and I’ve got one – so I’m excited about it and (looking) to make the most of it”. “At the end of the day, you have to go out on the grass and perform”.

Tennessee hasn’t been in an SEC Championship Game since 2007, Phillip Fulmer’s second-to-last season as head coach. The average margin of victory in those games has been 22 points.

Smart’s opening statement, the first of the day, lasted a filibuster-esque 12 minutes (for comparison’s sake, Auburn coach Gus Malzahn’s was a shade under three-and-a-half minutes). I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Richt.

South Carolina (Will Muschamp) and Missouri (Barry Odom) also have new coaches.

Smart’s reply: “First I would like to say Coach Richt is a good friend of mine”.

“They are pretty swagged up right now”, Mullen said. I think he does a great job of what the plans are…

“I’ve been late to an (academic) appointment and that wasn’t a good feeling because I had to have a discipline run”, he said. With time, I’m sure he’ll get a little more relaxed in the company of so many distinguished typists and professional talkers. I’m responsible as a head coach. “And I don’t know who that is”.

“You know you focus on that you get lost in the shuffle”.

When the Bulldogs released their roster this week, it indicated Simmons would wear jersey No. 36.

And maybe, just maybe, catch a glimpse of head coach Butch Jones, the man who has lifted Tennessee back into popular SEC East beast status. Mullen wore the new Yeezy Boost 750s. “The trademark for us is going to be a big, physical, fast football team”, he said. We don’t have a lot of depth of front. He accounted for over 73 percent of Mississippi State’s yards in 2015 and 66 percent in 2014.

“That’s the only thing on my mind”, Jefferson said. Smart had to answer a few questions about the Bulldogs’ disciplinary problems and fielded numerous queries about who might start at quarterback and whether Nick Chubb or Sony Chubb would be available in the first game.

“I don’t get wide-eyed because of where I come from”, Smart told Frank Frangie and Brady Ackerman on Frangie’s 1010XL Jax Sports Radio show Tuesday.

“Who would have thought they would both be rehabbing?” Certainly, there’s a great deal learned over the last 11 years.

“He’s doing everything with the rest of the team as far as summer workouts”, Smart said. “We’re trying to change the culture around there”. But sometimes we live in an instant gratification society and we want things right now, and we need to continue to go back to the compound effect of building it. We’re building it for sustained success. Michel replaced him and racked up 1,161 yards on the season, only to sustain the off-the-field injury two months before the season.

“It’s a very prestigious award and a lot of incredible college football players have won it”, said Dobbs. “He’s probably in the best shape of his life. He’s come in and worked hard”, center Brandon Klublano said. If I knew, I promise you, I would tell you.

While making a decision on naming a starting quarterback looms for Smart, he has questions on defense, too.

“There’s a lot more uncertainty with Sony’s situation, having just had the injury, just coming out of the surgery”.

He’s been a player, an administrative assistant, a position coach, and most recently, the defensive coordinator for Alabama the past 8 years.