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Georgia's Kirby Smart Ranked Fourth Best College Football Head Coach of the 2000s
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart during the the national championship celebration at Sanford Stadium in Athens on Jan. 15, 2022. Joshua L. Jones / USA TODAY NETWORK

Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart was listed as the fourth best college football coach of the 2000s.

Since the turn of the century, college football has seen some legendary figures in the sport that have paved the way for the modern age of collegiate athletics. Amongst those figures are some of the sport's greatest coaches. 

Earlier this week, The Athletic provided a list where it ranked its top 25 coaches of the 21st century. Amongst the legendary head coaches was Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart, who ranked fourth on the list behind only Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, and Nick Saban.

Smart's ranking was the highest of any active head coach and The Athletic's Chris Vannini believes that the coach could climb a few more spots before the end of his career. "He took the Alabama model to Athens and unlocked the potential Georgia always had." Wrote Vannini.

Smart took over the Bulldogs program in 2016 and experienced success with the Dawgs almost immediately. In his second season with the program, Georgia won its first SEC title in more than a decade and was an overtime victory (or questionable offsides call) away from winning a national championship.

Since then, Georgia has emerged as a top-tier powerhouse in the sport of college football and Smart has become the gold-standard for modern college football coaches. The Bulldog's head coach may still have plenty of tread left on the tires, but Kirby Smart is already one of the greatest college football coaches of the 2000s.

Notable Georgia Football Accomplishments Under Kirby Smart

  • Two National Championship Titles
  • Three SEC Championship Titles
  • Four College Football Playoff Appearances
  • 20 First round NFL draft selections. 

This article first appeared on Georgia Bulldogs on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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