Actually, Kirby "Smart" is no different than Mark Richt was after his first 3 seasons. Both have an identical 32-8 record so far. Both finished 3rd in the SEC East their first year, then both won the SEC East the next 2 years. Mark Richt only lost 5 games total in his 4th and 5th year, so Kirby "Smart" still has his work cut out for him...to simply stay even with a guy the school fired. Personally, I'd say Kirby "Smart" is doing marginally worse than Richt, since he's averaging 14 games a year and Richt was averaging 13 - Richt's win percentage was actually higher.
gotta remember why richt got fired though. Kirby does need to pick it up marginally, as Rich finished with top 10 teams 5/6 of those following his first year, then ending the season unranked in 4/8 (bad for uga standards, if your name isnt Ray Goff, hasnt been done for ~40 years), including the only power 5 team in college football history to have 10 wins and finish the season unranked the year he was fired. They had more wins over P5 teams with 3 or fewer wins than they did with 7.
Program is in a better spot IMO as Florida is rebuilding instead of competing for titles, as with tennessee, both of which won titles in the areas surrounding Richts tenure. Bama is another beast, and Auburn can always sneak in, but there schedule now is WAY more favorable for Kirby to take advantage of, unless Mullen can re-pull together a dynasty for Florida, which is feasible, with the collapse of FSU and Miami on their 4th coach in 12 years.
