Four different assistants who have worked under Kirby Smart are now head coaches, with all four working at the Power 5 level. Shane Beamer is at South Carolina, Sam Pittman is in charge at Arkansas, Mel Tucker is running Michigan State and Dan Lanning was hired this past offseason to be the head coach at Oregon.
And per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Georgia is likely to have a few more future head coaches on its current staff. Rittenberg assembled a list of 45 minority coaches under the age of 45 with the potential to be head coaches. Among those making the list were defensive backs coach Fran Brown and wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon.
Both Brown and McClendon arrived at Georgia this offseason, ironically replacing two other coaches who were on Rittenberg’s list in Jahmile Addae and Cortez Hankton. Brown arrives from Rutgers and has hit the ground running in terms of recruiting, as the Bulldogs already have three cornerback commitments in the class, all from top-150 prospects.
Brown has strong ties to the northeast, due in part to his previous coaching stints at Rutgers and Temple. Georgia has seen a number of defensive backs coaches leave for better jobs in recent years, with Tucker leaving to become the head coach at Colorado and Charlton Warren departing to be the defensive coordinator at Indiana.
“I was very pleased with how hard he works, his relationships with the players, he is relentless on the road recruiting,” Smart said of Brown this spring. “I mean the guy communicates so well and pushes so hard, I think he is going to be a really good coach. I think he is a rising star in this profession because of the energy he puts into it. He is very coachable.”
Brown will share the secondary this year with Will Muschamp, as the latter also holds a co-defensive coordinator title. The former is expected to work more with the cornerbacks, while Muschamp will work with the safeties.
McClendon is now back coaching at his alma mater after stints at Oregon and South Carolina. He has served as the interim coach at both GEorgia and Oregon and has experience as an offensive coordinator in his time at South Carolina.
Georgia has been negatively recruited against when it comes to the wide receiver position yet McClendon still has Georgia well positioned for a number of top targets. He also inherits a talented, but oft-injured wide receiver room at Georgia. With some injury luck, the Bulldogs could have a very good year at the position.
Brown and McClendon aren’t the only two assistants with bright futures on the Georgia coaching staff. Co-defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann and tight ends coach Todd Hartley are also seen as up-and-coming coaches due to their abilities to recruit and develop. Both are also on the young side, with Hartley being 36 and Schumann being 32 years old.
Related: Todd Hartley is the perfect example of what Kirby Smart wants for Georgia football
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