AT THE TOP OF THEIR GAMES
SMART, HEALY STOOD OUT AS LAST SEASON’S BEST COACHES
ATHENS, Ga. — It can be argued that Saturday afternoon’s season opener between Georgia and Austin Peay will include the two head coaches who had the finest 2017 seasons in all of Division I college football.
Kirby Smart and Will Healy certainly have the hardware to prove it.
“I have a lot of respect for Coach Healy and the job he’s done,” Smart said this week. “I’ve followed his career. He’s done a tremendous job everywhere he’s been, especially offensively. His players are very enthusiastic, and he’s done a really good job recruiting and coming into the state of Georgia.
“I’ve seen them in the local high schools more and more, and it’s kind of evidenced by the way their players have played.”
A 30-year-old Healy inherited an Austin Peay program in December 2015 that had lost 16 consecutive games and dropped 11 more in his debut year. A 27-game losing streak became 29 when the Governors lost to Cincinnati and Miami (Ohio) to open last season, but they flipped a switch to win eight of their final 10 games to go 8-4 overall and 7-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play, setting a school record for single-season league wins.
Though Austin Peay was left out of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, Healy received the Eddie Robinson Award as the nation’s top coach at that level. Even last season’s success, however, had obstacles for the youthful-looking Chattanooga native, as evidenced by his pregame visit with Miami (Ohio) coach Chuck Martin.
“It was the typical meeting of coaches standing at midfield before the game,” Healy said. “Some of us do it on ‘ESPN Ocho,’ and others do it on CBS, but they still mean the same thing. I’m talking to him, congratulating him on the year before, and he starts looking over both of my shoulders and not paying any attention to me.
“Then he says, ‘Excuse me, son, do you mind telling me where your head coach is?’ I had to tell him that it was me. That was pretty humbling.”
Smart inherited an entirely different situation, assuming a tradition-rich and resource-rich Football Bowl Subdivision program that was averaging 10 wins a season but finding multiple ways to miss out on trips to the Southeastern Conference championship game despite a weakened Eastern Division. He also took over in December 2015, and his debut season yielded an 8-5 record with home losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech and a Liberty Bowl berth.
It was hardly the stuff of Bulldogs lore, but Georgia packed a decade’s worth of memories into last season by winning at Notre Dame, demolishing division rival Florida 42-7, earning a first SEC title in 12 years and defeating Oklahoma 54-48 in double overtime at the Rose Bowl national semifinal. The Bulldogs came up short against Alabama in the national championship game, but Smart received the Maxwell Football Club’s George Munger Award as its college coach of the year.
The biggest difference between the 42-year-old Smart and the 33-year-old Healy is how they arrived at their posts. While Austin Peay and Healy took admitted risks on one another, Smart built his reputation as Nick Saban’s righthand man at Alabama and helped the Crimson Tide earn four national titles.
Smart already was making more than $1 million when his alma mater came calling, and he claims he never obsessed over head-coaching opportunities along the way, even when he worked at four different locales from 2004 to 2007.
“You know, I never looked at it that way,” Smart said. “I just looked at it as be where your feet are, and it takes care of the rest. If you do really well where you are and you recruit well and you coach hard and your team is fortunate to win games, you’ll get a lot of opportunities. I’ve coached at some really good places when you think about it.
“I learned a long time ago that when you take a job, you need to have proximity to players and you need to be able to have better players, because the coaching part can be overrated. I never looked at it as when was I going to get my first opportunity to be a head coach. I just looked at it as being kind of present where my feet are.”
Smart repeatedly praised Healy this week for showing a lot of leadership at a young age. The two coaches have never met, with Healy pointing out how he often talks with Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason but that Mason is the only SEC coach he knows.
That will change before Saturday’s game, and Healy is wishing for a smooth introduction.
“I’m just really hoping that when I go to midfield in Sanford Stadium,” Healy said, “that he recognizes me and that we can have a good conversation.”