Kirby Smart, Hugh Freeze SEC Media Days pairing causes a stir
Kirby Smart and Hugh Freeze will speak on the same day at SEC Media Days, and we discussed the ripple effect of that on The Georgia Show.
Smart and Freeze did battle when the latter was Ole Miss‘s head coach, and the former was Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
They also had one skirmish in Oxford in Kirby Smart’s first season as Georgia’s head football coach.
Hugh Freeze’s bunch got the better of the Dawgs by a lot. Ole Miss led Georgia 31-0 at halftime and beat Kirby Smart’s first-year program 45-14.
Since then, Ole Miss fired Hugh Freeze and had pretty good reasons to do so. Really good reasons to do, so, in case you aren’t familiar.
He rehabbed his image at Liberty and Auburn wants to rehab its image by hiring a coach who proved he could win in the SEC. But you can imagine how the media will approach Freeze’s first SEC Media Days appearance as the Tigers’ head coach.
And Kirby Smart will take the stage as the defending National Championship head coach in College Football. Again.
Only in the SEC is a Media Days pairing worth analyzing five months out, but it does just mean more, after all.
We shared our thoughts on our most recent Sunday night edition of The Georgia Show (like, subscribe follow on YouTube, Apple and Spotify):
Georgia has a lot of coordinator and assistant coach stability returning to Kirby Smart’s staff
So we decided to draft the best ones.
Nine coordinators / assistants will return for the 2023 season. There are four of us, with two picks each, so one coach got left out.
I know it’s confusing. I didn’t make the rules. You’ll just have to watch and listen to see how we got to where we got.
For reference, I drafted running backs coach Dell McGee and outside linebackers coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe.
RBU is coming back with Mike Bobo joining the fold as Kirby Smart‘s offensive coordinator.
I also believe the Dawgs will have more pressure from the edge next season than it did last year. Those are my predictions.
Stocks all the way up.
Speaking of Dawgs and stocks and running backs and EDGE rushers…
The stock is surging on running back Andrew Paul and defensive freak Darris Smith.
For all of the Dawgs fans who always ask us about one or both of them in The Georgia Show comments, you’re in luck.
Not only do we address these players in the show, it seems like both have tremendous upsides next season and beyond. Andrew Paul’s ACL injury set him back as a freshman. Darris Smith mainly contributed on special teams.
We’ll hear a lot more about them for the next couple seasons.
And you’ll also hear our Dawg Stocks report at the end of this week’s show.
Maybe it’s a spin zone (it definitely is), but I’ll tell you why I have stock up on the Georgia-Alabama basketball rivalry and Mike White after this weekend’s Bama beating.
