Georgia head coach Kirby Smart didn’t just prove doubters wrong when his formerly sixth-ranked Bulldogs football team took down former No. 1 Texas on Oct. 19.
Smart became the fastest head coach to reach 100 wins in SEC history with the 30–15 victory over the now No. 5 Longhorns (6–1). He needed 117 games, fewer than former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who needed 118, and former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier’s 120.
The Bulldogs coach quickly deflected credit afterward.
The Alabama native took over as the Bulldogs head coach in 2016 after nine years as an assistant under Saban with the Crimson Tide. Smart led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022 as he elevated the team to a new level.
Georgia won more than 10 games only four times from 2002 to 2016. The Bulldogs have won 11 or more games in every season under Smart except for 2016 and 2020 in a COVID-shortened year.
“It’s pretty cool to hit that number because when I started, I thought that was unreachable and unattainable,” Smart said. “And now, in 10 years, nine years, I don’t know how many years it is, we get there. It’s a credit to this university and the support we have that we’ve been able to do that.”
While 100 wins is a major milestone in college football, Smart has a ways to go to catch the game’s all-time greats. He doesn’t even rank in the top 100 of all-time wins, which have at least at least 130.
Smart also has only the 15th most wins among active college coaches behind Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin, another former Saban assistant. Saban made it to 297 wins for fifth all-time before his retirement in 2024.
North Carolina’s Mack Brown has the most wins among active coaches, but he has only one national title, which came in 2005 with a 13–0 Texas team.
Smart, 48, could move into the upper echelon of college coaches for the win column before all is said and done, but he could also chase the all-time greats for the most national titles. If he can lead the now No. 2-ranked Bulldogs to a third title this year, he would join a crowded group of coaches who are tied at sixth with three titles. It gets less crowded after that as only six coaches have won four or more titles.
For now, Smart looks to keep the Bulldogs proving the doubters wrong after an early-season loss at now-No. 15 Alabama (5–2). The Bulldogs sit behind No. 1 Oregon (7–0) in the rankings but have a long road ahead through the SEC season.
Georgia has a week off before facing Florida (4–3) on Nov. 2 followed by games with Kiffin’s No. 18 Rebels (5–2) in Mississippi on Nov. 9 and No. 7 Tennessee (6–1) on Nov. 16.
In the meantime, Smart likely won’t get texts about a No. 1 team being better than his, which happened going into the Texas game.
“Our whole program was being doubted. I mean, did you watch the (College GameDay) show this morning? I didn’t because I was in meetings, but I got 8,000 texts about it. Somebody was doubting us,” Smart said. “Maybe it wasn’t y'all, but there’s a lot of people doubting our kids and the ability to go on the road and win.
“Look, we were able to win this game because of what we had done before this. Like, going to Kentucky and playing and going to Alabama and playing. We didn’t flinch. You don’t flinch when you’ve been in these battles,” Smart added.
Those battles down the road could include a possible rematch with the Longhorns in the SEC title game and later the unbeaten Ducks in the College Football Playoff.
