Nobody has quite achieved like Kirby Smart in this decade. After all, with Nick Saban’s retirement, Kirby Smart has officially taken the mantle as the most demanding coach in the college football realm. The head honcho literally broke the Georgia Bulldogs’ 41-year curse (natty drought) by winning back-to-back natties. The sporting media giant ESPN made sure to give Kirby Smart his flowers in their ‘top 10 performing head coaches of the 2020s.’

Kirby Smart landed at #4 on ESPN’s ‘best coaching performances of the 2020s’ list. It sounds a little low for the only guy with back-to-back rings, right? The reason comes down to a specific math formula used by ESPN’s Bill Connelly. The ESPN analyst didn’t just look at who won the most games here. Instead, he used a very different and interestingly fair metric and methodology.

Connelly looked at who “overachieved” the most compared to their school’s history. Because Georgia has been a powerhouse for decades, the system basically says, “Hey Kirby, you’re supposed to be this good,” which makes it harder for him to climb to the very top of a list based on improvement.

The formula is a 60/40 split. 60% of the grade is “Performance vs. Baseline”. Basically, how much better is the team now than it was over the last 20 years? The other 40% is “Raw Quality,” or how good the team actually is on the field. The reason Kirby Smart’s not on the top two or first is that Georgia was already elite under Mark Richt. So, Kirby doesn’t get a big ‘improvement’ boost here.

Meanwhile, coaches like Curt Cignetti (No. 1) or Rhett Lashlee (No. 2) at SMU are ranked higher because they took programs that were historically struggling and turned them into absolute wagons overnight, and also playoff teams.

If we look strictly at the “Raw Quality” side of things (how dominant the teams actually were), Kirby is almost untouchable, in a league of his own. His average team rating (SP+) for the 2020s is a staggering 28.5. To put that into perspective, he’s second only to his old boss, Nick Saban (30.0). The list essentially rewards the miracle workers who changed a program’s DNA.

Meanwhile, Kirby’s seen as a primary builder. If Smart had gone to any other lower Power 4 schools, like Iowa State or Purdue, and did what Rhett Lashlee did, he’d even find himself in the top 3 or even top 2. Then again, he’s the only coach in the top five who has maintained this level of elite play for every single year of the 2020s so far.

Why is Kirby Smart still a good standard in the coaching world?

Even though he’s 4th on this specific “performance” list, other ESPN rankings that focus on the last 20 years of college football have him at #3 overall, trailing only legends like Saban and Chris Petersen. It shows that while he might not get the “most improved” trophy, he’s widely considered the gold standard for active coaches today.

In fact, following his massive 10-year, $130 million contract extension, he’s officially the highest-paid man in the sport, or at least on par with Curt Cignetti. Anyway, looking ahead to the rest of the decade, Kirby is in a prime spot to move up. The 2025 season saw a slight dip after a questionable loss to Ole Miss in the playoff game, which dropped his 2025-specific ranking to 14th.

However, with his recruiting machine still ranking at a #1 or #2 national level every year, he’s the safest bet to stay in this top five for years to come. While other coaches on the list might flare up and then fade away, apparently, Kirby Smart has turned Athens into a permanent residence for the CFB elite.