ATHENS — There’s been significant turnover at the top of the coaching ranks in college football this offseason. Nick Saban has retired. Jim Harbaugh is now coaching the Los Angeles Chargers.

With all the change at the top of the sport, it has led to many in the college football community re-evaluating who they see as the top coach in college football.

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic though had little trouble in selecting his top choice. That would be Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.

“The easiest one to ID on this list. Smart is 94-16 with two national titles, and he’s 86-11 since that 8-5 debut season,” Feldman wrote. “In the last seven years, Georgia has finished no worse than No. 7 in the final AP poll. Smart is 24-0 the past three years in SEC regular season games. The gap between him and the second spot is pretty wide right now.”

Smart is one of just three active head coaches to have won a national title, with Dabo Swinney of Clemson and Mack Brown of North Carolina being the other.

Smart will match up against a number of elite coaches this season, as the Bulldogs face a tougher SEC slate thanks to the addition of Texas and Oklahoma. Georgia will face Dabo Swinney and Clemson (No. 2 in Feldman’s rankings), Kalen DeBoer and Alabama (No. 4), Steve Sarkisian and Texas (No. 11), Mark Stoops and Kentucky (No. 16), Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss (No. 21) and Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers (No. 23).

Of those games, only the Auburn contest will be played at home. For most, that would be an issue.

But under Smart, Georgia hasn’t lost a road game since 2020. The Bulldogs are 30-4 on the road since Smart became Georgia’s head coach back in 2016.

For as much as the sport has changed in recent years, Smart has proven capable of adapting to the times. He’s proven flexible with the transfer portal and NIL. All while continuing to recruit at an elite level, as the Bulldogs signed the No. 1 recruiting class for the 2024 recruiting cycle.

Even with all of Smart’s success, he’s maintained that Georgia’s success has always been about the players, rather than him.

“There’s a culture at our place of work ethic and the job is not done,” Smart said following the Orange Bowl. “I think a lot of coaches relax at the end of the year and say this game doesn’t matter or this game is not important.

“There’s nothing that’s not going to be important at our place. There’s not going to be a day we walk out on that field that Kamari Lassiter is not walking through, that’s not important. I think that standard has translated into success, and I think that’s a big part of the culture that’s been created.”

Smart and the Bulldogs will hit the practice field next week as spring practice starts for Georgia on Tuesday. Georgia will wrap up with spring practice on April 13 with its annual G-Day scrimmage.