Kirby Smart adds former Alabama assistant to Georgia coaching staff

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has been making a number of moves this off-season, with regards to shuffling his coaching staff. On Thursday afternoon, it was announced that he’d added a former Alabama Crimson Tide assistant, assistant strength and conditioning coach Lonnie Brown. When he worked with Alabama, he spent time with the 2015 National Championship team and specialized in defensive lineman skills and technique.

Most recently, Brown was with the Arizona Wildcats football program as their Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning.

Not only has Kirby Smart had to make several changes on his coaching staff, he’s also given plenty of them salary bumps this offseason.

Salary raises for Georgia coaching staff

Georgia Bulldogs offensive coordinator Todd Monken received a salary bump of $1.25 million, up from $1 million, per a UGA response to an open records request. Seth Emerson of The Athletic reported the news via his Twitter page on Wednesday evening. There was no information as to whether or not the new pay raise was due to a new contract or simply an increase in salary. This season, Monken is set to enter the third year of his three-year contract he signed when he originally joined the Bulldogs coaching staff.

Georgia’s offensive coordinator is coming off one of the biggest accomplishments of his career, after he called a beautifully orchestrated gameplan against the Alabama Crimson Tide to lead the Bulldogs to the 2022 National Championship. ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit recently noted that he thought Monken’s aggressiveness with his play-calling in the second half was a big reason why Georgia was able to come away with the 33-18 win in one of the biggest games in program history.

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Other assistants for Kirby Smart’s staff also received raises. Georgia defensive line coach also received a massive raise. He will now make $700,000 annually, up from $450,000 per year. Neyland Roper has been promoted to the Director of Football Operations for Georgia, replacing Josh Lee. The Bulldogs‘ recently hired outside linebackers coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe will earn $450,000. All of that information is via a report from Seth Emerson of The Athletic. Eddie Gordon, previously a graduate assistant, will be promoted into a full-time quality control role for the 2022 season, per On3’s Palmer Thombs.

Todd Monken isn’t the first Georgia assistant to receive a boost in their salary this off-season, there have been a few others. Will Muschamp and Glenn Schumann will both make $800,000 in 2022. Both coaches will share the position of co-defensive coordinator after the Bulldogs previous defensive coordinator, Dan Lanning, left to become the new head coach at Oregon. Schumann was previously making $600,000, while Muschamp, who joined the Georgia staff a year ago, was supposed to receive $300,000.