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Dude has won all but 2 games the last 3 years and was back to back champs, and likely the best squad last season who lost at an inopportune time. A dynasty like Bamas had never been seen before so expecting someone to equal that to be considered a good coach is asinine. I'd trade Kelly and players to be named later for Smart right now. That guy will leave UGA on his own terms and as one of the greatest coaches the sport has seen. Not bad for a terrible GameDay coach wouldn't you say?

I'd hold off on the nut hugging if I were you. Smart built his brand on the back of Nick Saban for 15 years. Every big time Nick disciple started with elite recruiting at their new spot. Kirby Smart was an UGA grad, his recruiting base is freaking Georgia, UGA was a 10 win team the year before he got there, and he didn't have to deal with NIL and the portal starting out.

Kelly had the stigma of leaving ND. He was a career yankee who came to the bayou "so how could he fit in", they would say. He had absolutely zero idea how to recruit down in the south, so he's learning as he goes. There was a mass exodus after Ed O was fired leaving 39 scholarship players. Speaking of that, LSU went 11-11 in the prior 2 seasons (1990s era stuff), and the transfer portal was the reason why we lost all that.

See unlike Louisiana, Georgia is massive in talent. It's like Florida and Texas. You can take a few kids, but there are plenty to go around. However what's different with Georgia, they only have Bama and Clemson who are real threats there, and a couple of poached kids don't do much in the grand scheme. Compared to Louisiana, we have money bags in TAMU and Texas right beside us, Saban is always poaching, and Ole Miss is trying to sneak a nugget out the 10 piece. With only about 20 four stars tops in a year, losing 15 of them is crazy. It would be the equivalent of losing 29 of the 39 4 star+ players in Georgia in that same year. UGA only got 8 of the top 15 that year, but they were all top 150 recruits. A QB, TE, 2 DL, 2 CB, 1 LB, and 1 Edge. Look at the defensive recruits. No wonder they can be so dominant there. If Louisiana produced DL and CBs at the rate they used to, then we'd already be back on track.

Give Kelly 5 years and LSU will be a perennial top 5 team. UGA and Smart are indeed elite, but let's not forget the advantages Smart had in comparison.

This post was edited on 4/20/24 at 3:47 pm