Kirby Smart is Mark Richt 2.0 So Far and You Can't Prove Us Wrong

Despite consistently winning 9-11 games every year, consistently bringing in a top recruiting class, and developing pro players at several key positions, Georgia parted ways with former head coach Mark Richt because he couldn't he couldn't get them over the national title hump. Sound familiar?

Kirby Smart might have gotten the Bulldogs pointed in the right direction, but he's been almost a spitting image of Richt through his first few seasons, having kept Richt's unmatched talent for losing big games while suffering one ridiculously lopsided upset each year.

Keep in mind, this isn't a bad thing. Georgia fans may not love Richt due to how messy the end of his era was, but he sent a half-dozen players to the NFL every year, won 74% of his games as head coach, was ranked in 12 of his 15 seasons in Athens, and twice ended the year as the No. 2-ranked team in the country.

Still, the standard for Georgia fans, who haven't seen a national championship since the days of Herschel Walker in 1980, is championship or bust. Smart appears farther away from that goal than he ever has after the South Carolina game.

If you want to go 10-3 every year in perpetuity, Smart and Richt are your guys. If you're gunning for a natty, they've proven they are not coaches who can get you there.

Then again, Georgia just needs to run the table to get into the College Football Playoff. Let's see if Smart can buck the trend, make that happen, and capture a title.