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O’Gara: Let’s call it like it is — Kirby Smart runs the sport and Dabo Swinney merely participates in it
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I’m not gonna name any names on this platform, but I can’t tell you how quickly my eyes rolled to the back of my head whenever I read that Dabo Swinney and Kirby Smart were still in the same tier of coaches. It was an outdated opinion that ignored the obvious.
That is, Kirby Smart runs this sport and Swinney merely participates in it.
Mind you, that was my perspective before the season when I read lists like that, which cited their equal number of national championships (2) while leaving out the fact that in the past 3 years, one coach had 39 consecutive regular-season wins and another had 1 New Year’s 6 bowl appearance (it was a blowout loss vs. Joe Milton-led Tennessee).
After Saturday? Let’s all agree to move past the notion that Smart and Swinney are on the same level.
We should’ve moved past that after that 65-7 TCU beatdown, but I digress. Let’s instead move past it after 34-3.
That was the final score of the Georgia-Clemson “rematch” Saturday, which had some early 2021 vibes. After all, that season-opening matchup between the 2 squads didn’t yield a single offensive touchdown. A Christopher Smith pick-6 was the difference in a 10-3 UGA win that set the wheels in motion for UGA’s national championship season.
Three years later, both defenses again showed up with some bad intentions. No offensive touchdowns were scored in the first half. Clemson’s defensive line contained a Trevor Etienne-less Georgia rushing attack — he was suspended after a DUI arrest in March — mustered 34 yards on 11 carries in the first half. Thirteen of those yards came on a Carson Beck scramble.
And on the flip side, Clemson had 2 first downs in the first half. Cade Klubnik was overwhelmed by Jalon Walker and that Georgia front 7. The Tigers’ lone play on Georgia’s side of the field in the first half was a run that went for a loss of 1. It was a vintage Smart/Glenn Schumann defensive showing to set the tone. Really, that was the case from start to finish.
In a not-so-surprising sequence of events, Smart’s program was the coach who adapted. The offensive line got a better push and OC Mike Bobo schemed receivers open, which was more than enough for UGA to take control with a 28-3 advantage in the second half, wherein Beck hit transfer receivers Colbie Young and London Humphreys for touchdowns to lead a UGA offense in its first game of the post-Brock Bowers/Ladd McConkey era.
Klubnik, on the other hand, couldn’t have thrown to a transfer if he wanted to. Swinney’s refusal to dip into the transfer portal wasn’t the only reason Clemson lost to a better, more talented football team. But did it play a part? Absolutely. Klubnik didn’t have a chance. In another not-so-surprising sequence of events, a Clemson offense that was wildly disappointing with Garrett Riley in 2023 was once again, wildly disappointing. That’s the problem. Clemson’s bottom-11 unit in red-zone scoring percentage didn’t show any signs that it was capable of improving in that area.
In Clemson’s defense, this was Georgia. Like, the standard in the sport. Once upon a time, that was Clemson. It’s not a coincidence that the Tigers’ fall from annual national title contender coincided with the portal era and the loosened restrictions that followed in 2021. Since the portal era began in 2018, Swinney hasn’t started a single player from the portal.
Dabo said no thank you pic.twitter.com/WQJ34FZw9e
— Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) August 31, 2024
But sure, let’s hear Swinney once again tell everyone that he’s doing what’s best for his program while he makes an 8-figure salary.
Smart was much more like Swinney than Portal King Lane Kiffin. But after Smart only added between 1-4 transfers from 2021-23, he added 11 this offseason. That included the aforementioned Young and Humphreys, as well as Dominic Lovett, who had the most receiving yards among UGA returners. Smart did what Swinney should be doing — identifying key areas of need with the portal.
Swinney will be irrelevant as long as he continues to turn his nose up at that. For all the praise he gives for his development, he hasn’t had an offensive player selected in the first 2 days of the NFL Draft since 2021. That was once an unthinkable reality. Maybe Clemson will end that drought sometime soon. I won’t hold my breath.
Nobody should be holding their breath on Swinney to get back to Smart’s level. It’s not just that in the past 3 years, Smart has more national titles (2) than Swinney has ACC titles (1). Every coach endures an off year or two, but Swinney is telling everyone that he’s not willing to do what it takes to be a Tier 1 coach anymore.
The better debate might be whether Swinney belongs in that second tier with the likes of Brian Kelly and Ryan Day. Those coaches might die on specific hills — Kelly’s offseason comments about teams buying players made the rounds — but ask yourself this: Who has a better chance of winning a national title? Swinney is a distant third in that group.
Smart might just be his own tier in the sport. After all, no active coach who beat Smart is still at the same school. The 2018 Sugar Bowl loss to Texas was his last loss to a non-SEC team. Smart is far from perfect — his disciplinary decisions don’t exactly have a universal approval rating — but it’s hard to deny the decisions he made to put UGA in position to win titles. It’s never been more obvious that Swinney doesn’t have that ability anymore.
To suggest otherwise would be disrespectful to those like Smart who actually deserve to be in Tier 1.
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Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
