On a day of much ingress and egress for Georgia football, the Bulldogs are in the market for an assistant coach.
Scott Fountain, who has been with coach Kirby Smart for the past three years, the past two as special-teams coordinator, is leaving UGA to take the same position at Arkansas, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed Saturday. Fountain joins new Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman, who was the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach for the past four years.
Also joining Pittman at Arkansas is Georgia State running backs coach Jimmy Smith, the source said.
This is the second staff move Georgia coach Kirby Smart has had to deal with since the end of the 2019 season. He replaced Pittman as offensive line coach with former Ole Miss coach Matt Luke a month ago.
It was not immediately known if Smart already has plans for replacing Fountain, a veteran coach of 31 years, the past 25 on the college level. In two seasons with Fountain as Georgia’s special-teams coordinator, the Bulldogs produced three of the SEC’s top specialists, including place-kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, punter Jake Camarda and kick returner Mecole Hardman.
Fountain, 53, came to Georgia from Auburn as an quality-control analyst in 2017. He became special-teams coach in 2018. He has national championship game experience with Florida State, Auburn and Georgia.
Smart was asked before the Sugar Bowl if he he anticipated any more staff changes.
“As far as any other changes or anything like that, that’s decided after the bowl game, after we look back at the whole year,” Smart said.
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