Smart’s success, and Georgia’s consistency, can be largely attributed to his high hit rate with assistant coaches. Six former assistants have left for head coaching jobs elsewhere, five of which embarked on challenges at the power conference level. Two are still at schools in the SEC.
Mel Tucker, the former Michigan State head coach, was Smart’s first hire after just three years. With the exception of the 2023–24 athletic cycle, a Georgia assistant has been hired as a coach every cycle since 2019. Smart has a coaching tree that reaches from New York to Oregon, with a few stops along the way.
Smart usually works fast to replace those losses and tends to stick with a name he knows. Of the seven total assistants brought on to replace those lost to othert jobs, four have been internal promotions. The three external hires include a former coach in Matt Luke, who joined Georgia’s staff in 2020 to lead the offensive line after seven total years at,
With Dell McGee, who was hired at becoming the latest entry, it felt appropriate to look back and track the branches that have already sprouted from Smart’s ever-growing coaching tree.
