ATHENS — Steve Spurrier was out golfing on Wednesday and had a Georgia football thought.
“I’ve got a trivia question for you,” Spurrier said in a phone conversation with DawgNation. “Who is the only active SEC coach to win an SEC Championship?”
The answer, of course is Georgia football coach Kirby Smart.
“See that,” Spurrier said. “You’ve got some people out there saying Georgia didn’t have a good season, and that’s ridiculous.
“When you get to downplaying an SEC Championship that’s not good. That’s the second-hardest thing there is to do in college football, and they beat Texas twice in one season to do it.”
Spurrier, long known as the chief rival for Georgia, Tennessee and Florida State while coaching at Florida, won six SEC championships and the 1996 national championship, running up a 122-27-1 (.816) record over the course of his 12 seasons leading the Gators (1990-2001).
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Smart, on the verge of entering his 10th season as Georgia’s head coach, is 105-19 (.846) -- a record Spurrier has respect for, going so far as to say Smart belongs on the “Mount Rushmore” of SEC head football coaches.
“There’s only one coach who can say he had a better year than Kirby last year,” Spurrier said. “That coach is Ryan Day, and he needed a do-over, wouldn’t have even made the playoffs last year when they took four teams.”
Spurrier, informed that sounded like quotable material, agreed.
“Yep, you write that,” Spurrier said. “You’ve got all these great coaches in the SEC, and none of them have won an SEC championship. Have any of the other ones even won an SEC division?”
To Spurrier’s point, LSU’s Brian Kelly is the only coach out of the other 15 SEC coaches who could claim winning an SEC division, which were in play through the 2023 season.
“Yeah, shoot, those fans need to appreciate Kirby,” said Spurrier, who finished his college coaching career as South Carolina’s winningest head coach in history, going 86-49 (.637) from 2005-2015.
“Winning the SEC championship is a big deal, people need to realize that.”
Spurrier will be honoring one of Smart’s former assistants, Fran Brown, on Feb. 24 at his awards gala in Gainesville, Fla.
Brown won the Steve Spurrier First Year Coach of the Year Award after leading Syracuse to a 10-3 record this season, only the second 10-win season for the program since 2002. The Orange went 6-7 the year before Brown took over.
Spurrier will also honor fellow College Football Hall of Famer and former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer as the “Coaching Legend” winner — an award former Georgia coach Mark Richt won last year.
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The FWAA Freshmen of the Year will also be in attendance with their head coaches.
Offensive: LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina
Defensive: Leonard Moore, Notre Dame
Special Teams: Nolan Hauser, Clemson
Former Georgia tight end Brock Bowers is a former FWAA Freshman of the Year (2021).
Georgia’s K.J. Bolden was named to the Freshman All-American team, marking the ninth-straight season the Bulldogs had at least one player on the team.
Former Georgia Freshman All-Americans
2024: FS K.J. Bolden
2023: OT Earnest Greene lll, LB C.J. Allen, PK Peyton Woodring 2022:
2021: TE Brock Bowers
2020: OT Warren McClendon
2019: DE Azeez Ojulari
2018: DT Jordan Davis, OT Isiah Wilson, OG Cade Mays
2017: QB Jake Fromm, OT Andrew Thomas
2016: PK Rodrigo Blankenship, TE Isaac Nauta
2014: RB Nick Chubb
2012: RB Todd Gurley
2009: TE Orson Charles
2008: WR A.J. Green
2007: RB Knowshon Moreno
