The Georgia Bulldogs and head coach Kirby Smart are red-hot and hoping to dominate their SEC foes in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Like red and black runs through his veins, Georgia’s head coach is in line for a huge payday. Regardless of the outcome of the final college football game of the season, Smart should receive a lucrative contract extension and a bump in salary/net worth. That is, of course, on top of the already massive deal he signed a few years ago.
Kirby Smart’s salary in 2022
Smart is already the fifth-highest-paid coach in the nation. In 2018, he signed a seven-year extension worth $7 million a year.
That pushed him to the fifth-highest in the land, matching the contract Gus Malzahn had signed to stay at Auburn. Smart’s current contract has him on staff at UGA through the 2024 season.
It was a seven-year, $49 million contract in total. Those figures seemed large in 2018. But after Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s record $9.75 million annual salary was nearly topped by former Georgia defensive coordinator Mel Tucker’s deal at Michigan State, it seems likely Smart will receive a similar bump.
Tucker signed a 10-year, $95 million deal after his first highly successful season with the Spartans. Fellow former Saban assistant and current Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher also had his contract extended and is set to make more than that coveted $9 million per year figure.
Smart’s net worth in 2022
Though he’s set to make over $9 million a year once he gets a boost, Smart certainly hasn’t always been this rich.
In fact, Georgia’s sixth-year head coach started with humble beginnings. He was the defensive backs coach for Valdosta State back in 2000 and his annual salary was just $8,000.
After successful stints at Florida State, LSU, and the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, Smart returned to college football in 2007 with the Alabama Crimson Tide. After nine years under Saban, Smart took the head coaching job at Georgia in 2016. His original contract paid him just over $3 million a year. The extension signed in 2018 paid him $7 million per season.
With those figures in mind, Smart’s net worth is likely around $9 million. That, of course, will only go up if he does in fact sign a massive extension with the Dawgs. Following their national championship run, it seems more and more likely that he will ink a new pact.