Kirby Smart is now more than a week into his tenure as Georgia’s head coach. Three members of his staff are official. That leaves six open spots, none of which he revealed during a media teleconference on Monday.
Smart said he is “right on schedule” in staffing, having named an offensive coordinator (Jim Chaney), offensive line coach (Sam Pittman) and Glenn Schumann to an unspecified spot on the defensive staff.
Thomas Brown also appears on track to return as running backs coach. Smart did not confirm that Brown will return, but came close.
“I feel comfortable with Thomas … I think he’s a great young man,” Smart said, pointing out he coached Brown at Georgia in 2005. “We’re trying to work to keep him here.”
Kevin Sherrer could also return as outside linebackers coach, but Smart, after saying how much he liked Sherrer, stopped short of confirming him as well.
Smart has said several times there is no timetable on finalizing his staff and that the process was a matter of “getting one piece of the puzzle at a time.” The first piece was getting the tandem of Chaney and Pittman.
“I’m one that’s been advised by a lot of mentors and a lot of people to not be in a big rush,” Smart said. “The critical time of the year for us is January and it’s a lot more important to hire the right people to surround yourself with for the rest of the year than it is for recruiting. That’s kind of the way I’ve approached that.”
Smart starts back to work at Alabama on Tuesday morning, where he will continue as the Crimson Tide’s defensive coordinator through the playoffs. In the meantime some of the new hires will be able attend Georgia’s bowl practices, though will not participate actively as coaches.
Smart said he already has a personal relationship with many of Georgia’s current coaches and he has visited with each of them.
“There’s some things they had to say, listen to some ideas, listen to different things. And also see what direction they wanted to head and also entertain the idea of being able to retain any of them,” Smart said. “Some of that, we’re still going through that process. But some of them have gone and looked for other jobs. So each one is kind of on an individual basis there.”
It was not a great day for the recruiting department. Both Darion Anderson, a wide receiver from Houston County, and junior quarterback Bailey Hockman from McEachern de-committed.
Anderson, a three-star receiver, had been committed to UGA longer than any other receiver in the 2016 class. He tweeted on Monday afternoon he was de-committing and opening up his recruiting process. The senior is rated as the nation’s No. 62 receiver for the Class of 2016.
The 6-foot-1, 175-pounder committed back in March, but that was a different UGA staff. Anderson had built strong relationships to his area recruiter John Lilly and also with receivers coach Bryan McClendon. Smart’s plans for Lilly and McClendon are undefined at this time.
Hockman, a 2017 pro-style quarterback, also de-committed earlier this morning. UGA list of commitments for the class of 2016 dropped to 15.
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