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It’s a profitable time to be an assistant college football coach these days, especially at Georgia, who doles out the fourth-highest payroll in the nation to its coaching staff. Starting at the beginning of the year, however, those checks will be going out to new addresses in the Athens community.
The ink is still wet on Kirby Smart’s contract as Georgia’s new head coach, but the former Alabama defensive coordinator has already begun to build his coaching staff — starting with several, not flashy, but key building blocks.
Smart has yet to name his offensive and defensive coordinators as Brian Schottenheimer and Jeremy Pruitt, respectively, don’t figure to return to Athens. Especially Pruitt, who interviewed for Michigan’s DC role, and appears now to be the man replacing Smart as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
So the race is on for the new Georgia coach to, not only aggressively hit the recruiting trail, but fill a competent staff to help lure elite prospects to Athens.
Smart’s first few moves, however, are subtle but potentially seismic. His first addition to his new staff was to sign Glenn Schumann away from the Crimson Tide. Schumann has been Smart’s right-hand man for four years, consulting with the coordinator and Tide head coach Nick Saban as they consistently sculpted one of the best defenses in the nation.
Schumann received a healthy pay-bump from $80,000 to $225,000 annually to join Smart. His exact role has yet to be defined with Smart telling reporters that Schumann will likely eschew an office role for a position on the sidelines.
“He knows our system,” Smart said via AL.com. “He has been part of the process over there. He really knows the process and understands what I want. He’s really been my right-hand man for I guess four or five years now over there. He’s been an asset for the organization.”
It’s safe to say that Schumann is equal parts excited to be following Smart to Athens.
Great day to be a Georgia Bulldog!! Wheels up ✈️ #CommitToTheG
— Glenn Schumann (@CoachSchuUGA) December 7, 2015
The only other addition retention on Smart’s new staff is that of running backs coach Thomas Brown — the only current Bulldogs assistant Smart follows on Twitter, if that tells you anything. Brown will keep his role working with the running backs. The former Georgia tail back returned to his Alma mater this season after guiding Melvin Gordon to a 2,587-yard performance during the 2014 season as Wisconsin’s running backs coach. Prior to his stint in Madison, Brown held the same role at Marshall and UT-Chattanooga, developing sound rushing attacks for both the Thundering Hurd and Mocs, respectively. Barring any setbacks, Brown will have another deep stable of tailbacks to work with in 2016 at Georgia, including the return of injured superstar Nick Chubb. And if Chubb and company aren’t enough, Brown is already on the recruiting trail for Smart.
Great visit in New Orleans! On to Texas. #Squad16 #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/7BF8dwH2hi — Thomas Brown (@iamthomasbrown) December 10, 2015
But the biggest coup for Smart hasn’t happened, yet, and is by no means a done deal. But the whispers are loud enough that Alabama strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran could join his close friend Smart at Georgia. Cochran is regarded as one of the top fitness coaches in the country and is compensated accordingly to the tune of $420,000 annually. The hiring would be a big one for a Georgia program in search of that extra edge to finally put them over the top, while striking a glancing blow to Alabama, for whom Cochran has spent the last nine years molding into a powerful force.
With Pruitt basically hired-on at Alabama, expect the dominoes to start falling into place and for Smart to fill out the balance of his coaching staff rather soon, to assist on the recruiting trail. The sooner he does, the faster those new checks get in the mail and the Georgia Bulldogs can get back to winning.
Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.
