Georgia’s Kirby Smart still gets the edge over Curt Cignetti from voters who value sustained dominance

ESPN just ranked its top head coaches in college football, and the results stirred up the usual barstool debates. Curt Cignetti landed at No. 1 after two wild seasons at Indiana, where he turned a program that had been mostly irrelevant into a College Football Playoff contender. But four voters picked Kirby Smart over him — and their reasoning is worth a closer look.

Max Olson was one of those voters. He didn’t knock Cignetti at all. Called what he’s done at Indiana an absolute miracle, actually. But Olson’s argument for Smart is straightforward: the Georgia program remains the gold standard for elite, sustained success in an era when the expanded playoff, transfer portal and NIL have made consistency harder than ever.

Smart has had no bad years in Athens. Nine straight seasons finishing in the top seven of the AP poll. Eight trips to the SEC title game. And here’s the stat that jumps off the page — if you take out the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Smart is averaging 12.6 wins per year over his last eight full seasons. Since 2021, his SEC record is 40-5. That’s absurd.

The counterargument, of course, is the back-to-back Sugar Bowl losses in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Those were disappointing endings for a team that won consecutive SEC championships. But Olson sees those as stumbles, not signs of decline. The way he puts it, Smart’s track record of acquiring and developing blue-chip talent and consistently winning at the absolute highest level can’t be beat.

Cignetti’s case is built on a smaller sample size, but it’s a remarkable one. Indiana went from 3-9 to 11-2 and a playoff berth. That’s the kind of turnaround that gets a coach on the shortlist for national coach of the year every single season. But the voters who stuck with Smart essentially argued that doing it year after year, reloading and winning against the toughest schedule in the country, still carries more weight.

Smart and Georgia open the 2025 season on Sept. 5 against Tennessee State. The expectation remains the same as always — compete for a national title. Anything less and the noise around those playoff losses will only get louder.