Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs coaching staff have achieved tremendous success in recent seasons but head into 2024 looking to regain their place in the College Football Playoff and their SEC crown.
With some turnover on the Georgia coaching staff, who makes up the sideline team aiming to return the Bulldogs to the summit of college football?
Georgia Bulldogs Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Kirby Smart
Smart became head coach of the Bulldogs program in 2015, a decision that has provided Georgia with enormous success. Under his leadership, the program is a perennial contender and is one of the sports powerhouses.
Georgia has won two consecutive national championships, two SEC championships, and six SEC East Division titles under Smart’s reign. The Bulldogs head coach has also won three SEC Coach of the Year awards. Georgia thought they were buying success when they hired Smart eight seasons ago, but they couldn’t have imagined his impact level.
Smart’s coaching career began at Georgia as an administrative assistant in 1999. The coach was fresh from his playing days in Athens, where he was a defensive back for the Bulldogs between 1995 and 1998. Unable to make it in the NFL, he turned to coaching.
Smart spent two years at Valdosta State as a DB coach in 2000 and DC in 2021. He then found himself at Florida State, completing a master’s degree and working as a graduate assistant on Bobby Bowden’s staff in 2002 and 2003.
Smart spent several seasons learning under legendary head coach Nick Saban as a DB coach at LSU (2004) and the Miami Dolphins (2006). He followed Saban to Alabama in 2007 and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2008.
Alabama’s defense was among the most dominant in college football under Smart’s supervision, and the Crimson Tide won four national championships.
Georgia showed interest in hiring Smart as their head coach earlier in his career, with him reportedly turning down a substantial contract to take the job in 2010. Opting to stay with Saban in Alabama, Smart continued to learn.
Fast forward, and Smart has had unbelievable success. In eight seasons, the Georgia HC has a 94-16 record. He is now one of the best head coaches in the game and one of the highest-paid coaches in the country.
Defensive Coordinator/Inside Linebackers Coach: Glenn Schumann
Glenn Schumann has been on the Georgia coaching staff since 2016 and followed Smart from Alabama. Before joining Georgia, he worked at Alabama as a student assistant, graduate assistant, and director of football operations between 2008 and 2015.
It has become a great hire for Smart, who made landing Schumann a priority upon starting at Georgia. Schumann began life in Athens as the linebackers coach between 2016 and 2018 and was promoted to co-defensive coordinator in 2019. He took sole responsibility for the position and defensive playcalling in 2022 following Oregon’s hiring of Dan Lanning as head coach.
As linebackers coach, Schumann has molded two Butkus Award winners (Roquan Smith, 2017 and Nakobe Dean, 2021), as well as having two others nominated for the award.
- Alabama (student assistant, 2008-2011 and graduate assistant, 2011-2014)
- Georgia (Inside Linebacker Coach, 2016-2018)
- Georgia (Co-Defensive Coordinator and Inside Linebacker Coach, 2019-2022)
- Georgia (Defensive Coordinator and Inside Linebacker Coach, 2023-Present
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach: Mike Bobo
Mike Bobo was promoted to offensive coordinator in Athens in 2023 after Todd Monken left to join the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL, marking his second time in the role.
A former Bulldogs quarterback between 1993 and 1997, Bobo has spent close to two decades with the Georgia program over several cycles.
Bobo’s coaching career started in Georgia as a graduate assistant in 1999 before he became quarterbacks coach for Jacksonville State in 2000. Then, in 2001, Bobo returned to his alma mater and was the quarterbacks coach between 2021 and 2006.
Under Mark Richt, Bobo was promoted to offensive coordinator between 2007 and 2014, mentoring David Greene, Aaron Murray, and Matthew Stafford in his first spell in Athens.
2015 marked Bobo’s opportunity as a head coach. He was hired by the Colorado State Rams and served for five seasons, attaining a 28-35 record. Bobo was fired in 2019 and became offensive coordinator with South Carolina in 2020.
He was tasked with stepping in as interim head coach following the firing of Will Muschamp and then spent the 2021 season as offensive coordinator of Auburn before rejoining the Bulldogs.
- Georgia (graduate assistant, 1999)
- Jacksonville State (Quarterbacks Coach, 2000)
- Georgia (Quarterbacks Coach, 2001-2006 and Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, 2007-2014)
- Colorado State (Head Coach, 2015-2019)
- South Carolina (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, 2020 and Interim HC, 2020)
- Auburn (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, 2021)
- Georgia (offensive analyst, 2022)
- Georgia (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, 2023-Present)
Co-Defensive Coordinator/Safeties Coach: Travaris Robinson
Travaris Robinson was hired as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the Bulldogs in 2024. He was poached from Alabama, where he had been serving as cornerbacks coach between 2022 and 2023.
Robinson started coaching in 2006 at his alma mater, Auburn, and has held defensive back coaching positions with Western Kentucky, Southern Miss, Texas Tech, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina, Miami (FL), and Alabama.
Assistant Head Coach/Tight Ends Coach: Todd Hartley
Todd Hartley has served as Georgia’s tight ends coach since 2019 and is credited with the development of Brock Bowers, who became the best tight end in the game before declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft.
Other tight ends to have developed under his leadership include David Njoku, Charlie Woerner, Tre McKitty, John FitzPatrick, and Darnell Washington.
MORE: 2024 SEC Power Rankings
Hartley graduated from Georgia in 2008 and took on a graduate assistant role at West Virginia. Following a stint as a GA at Georgia from 2009 to 2010, he became safeties coach at Marshall before transitioning to coach TEs with the Thundering Herd from 2013 to 2014.
Before joining Georgia, Hartley had one final job with the Miami Hurricanes as a tight ends coach and special teams coach between 2016 and 2018.
Offensive Line Coach: Stacy Searels
Stacy Searels has been at Georgia since 2022 and is an established offensive line coach, having coached the position for three decades. 1994 marked Searels first job as offensive line coach at Appalachian State, and the offensive line guru has coached the positional group ever since.
Defensive Line Coach: Tray Scott
Tray Scott has been the defensive line coach at Georgia since 2017 and has developed elite talent in Athens. Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, and Devonte Wyatt are some of the first-round draft picks that Scott has nurtured.
Starting his career at his alma mater, Arkansas Tech, Scott has also coached at Ole Miss, UT Martin, and North Carolina.
Outside Linebackers Coach: Chidera Uzo-Diribe
Chidera Uzo-Diribe has been the outside linebackers coach at Georgia since 2022, having only started coaching in 2016. Uzo-Diribe was a four-year letterman at Colorado from 2010 to 2013 and became a graduate assistant with the Buffaloes between 2016 and 2018.
After spending a year with the San Francisco 49ers as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, Uzo-Diribe was hired as the outside linebackers coach of the Kansas Jayhawks in 2019. In 2021, he was hired by Sonny Dykes as defense line coach at SMU, and Uzo-Diribe followed the HC to TCU in 2022 but chose to head to Athens later that year.
Defensive Backs Coach: Donte Williams
Donte Williams is entering his first season as defensive backs coach with the Bulldogs, having spent over 15 years coaching the position throughout his career. Most recently, Williams has spent time with USC, where he has worked as a cornerback coach since 2020, along with passing game coordinator responsibilities.
KEEP READING: Georgia Bulldogs’ Top 10 Returning Players in 2024
The DB coach’s career started in 2007 at Los Angeles Harbor Community College, and he has spent time coaching defensive backs, most notably at San Jose State, Arizona, Nebraska, and Oregon. Williams has acquired a reputation as one of the nation’s best developers of secondary talent.
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