re: Thank God Kirby wasn't made coach in waiting

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When Saban retires, the fist call needs to go to Urban Meyer.

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Why would Meyer ever come here? He's got it made at OSU...in Bama he would be forever compared to Saban and, great as he is, I don't think he could match what Saban's done at Bama. He had some stress issues at UF, and that would increase tenfold with the unreasonable expectations at Bama and whomever follows Saban...he has a better chance to match/surpass Saban's number of titles at Ohio State...

Saban has spoiled us during this current era of Bama football...it's unprecedented and it's been an awesome time to be a Bama fan. But when Saban's gone, odds are high that we do not get the next great coach to follow him; it's only happened once in Bama's history when Frank Thomas followed Wallace Wade back in the 30's. Record and performance wise, we had mediocre or poor coaches between Thomas and Bear...same between Bear and Stallings...and the same between Stallings and Saban. I'll be grateful if it happens, but I'm not expecting it...so I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride while it lasts...

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I think he will eventually turn things around at UGA.

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Yeah the first year is always the toughest. He is coaching Richts players. A lot of those guys probably have not bought in to Smart and won't. He has to recruit and get his guys in there.

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Exactly. Saban's first year was 07. We are debating Kirby's first year at Georgia versus Saban's first year at Bama. I said Kirby has a lot more talent to work with than Saban had in 07 and you disagreed.

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Reread the post please...

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Do you honestly think we went from barely making a bowl game to title contenders the next year with that one class? It takes time to implement a new system. 

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The majority of the talent we had in 2007 was the majority of the starters in 2008. That was an amazing class, but the freshmen sure as hell weren't the only ones responsible for turning us into title contenders in 2008.

Oh and btw, what a difference a full year of Saban has on recruiting.

2008: #3 (3 5 star, 18 4 stars rest 3 stars).

In that single class, he tripled the number of 5 stars we'd recruited in the previous 4 years and nearly doubled the number of 4 stars from the previous 4 years.

And it also showed on the field.

Yes I know these rankings ain't perfect, but they are wayyyyy more right than they are wrong.

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Hopefully Dabo will continue to improve. Until I saw the unbelievably bad coaching he displayed in the barn game this season I thought he may be the next HC, but now I'm back to not having a clue.

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Meh, a young coach is going to inevitably have WTF games. Just be glad he's getting them out of his system at Clemson before Mama calls. He'll be ready.

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Kirby is doing a terrible job with more talent at his disposal than Nick started at Bama with.

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BS. Name one person on the UGA OL with talent anywhere comparable to Antoine Caldwell or Andre Smith. Name a UGA WR comparable to DJ Hall. Name one person on the UGA defense with talent like Rolando McLain, Rashad Johnson, Wallace Gilberry, Kareem Jackson, or Javier Arenas...

Recruiting rankings aren't the be all end all (remember 5-stars BJ Scott and Tyler Love?). Like I wrote above, many of the UGA players that Richt recruited are no longer with the team, particularly the 2013 class...

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Over half of the UGA recruiting class of 2013 is no longer with the team...of their top 4 rated recruits in that class, 3 are no longer with UGA and the 4th has never started. They would be juniors this year and should've been the foundation of this team...

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That is their worse class of those years. They still have 3 years of top recruiting behind it.

But more importantly - how can you argue in the face of that gap? I mean a couple of 4 stars from a class 4 years ago isn't even comparable to only getting a couple of 4 stars total over those years.

And really, you aren't even taking into account the injuries and such that happened before Saban got there on Alabama.

It's such a large gap this shouldn't be much of a conversation.

So Saban did more with less talent.

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These are all small samples and like less than 5% of the total players.

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Yes it is...but can you name 5% of current UGA players that are known to have similar talent, especially as far as on the field production prior to Kirby's arrival?

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Those people you list weren't big names in 2007.

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DJ Hall was a 3-year returning starter, first team all-SEC, and had already set some receiving records before Saban got there. Wallace Gilberry was a senior and a 2-year returning starter. Andre Smith was a returning starter that was a freshman All-American the previous year. Antoine Caldwell was a returning 2-year starter that had been a second team all-SEC selection as well as a freshman All-American. Javier Arenas was the starting return specialist who had returned 2 punts for TDs his freshman year. Andre Smith was a pretty big name nationwide...as for the others, they may not have had as much nationwide notice, but they were pretty big names in the SEC. Other than Chubb, Eason, and Michel, can you name a big name player for UGA, especially at a so called non-skill position?

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But are you saying this current Georgia team doesn't have future stars on it? And are you not going to give any credit for them being coached up?

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Can't tell yet as Kirby has not had enough time, only halfway through his first season. Are you saying with all the supposed talent you think UGA has that Kirby should've already had 'em coached up to Saban's standard halfway thru his first year? You give credit to Saban for coaching these alleged "no names" up but that's after having seen the final result. Will you not at least grant Kirby the same courtesy until he has the actual time to coach his team up? Saban is by far a better coach...but he also had extensive head coaching experience before taking the Bama job.

Kirby should not be judged so harshly halfway into his first season when we won't start to see the ultimate results until a year or two down the road. If things don't improve in the next couple of years, then the criticism would be reasonable. I don't recall that many Bama fans enamored with Saban during or immediately after his first year here...