Kirby Smart could be preparing to make the most unthinkable move in college football. Samford just turned the page on its most successful era Sunday afternoon. They fired Chris Hatcher after 11 seasons as the Bulldogs’ head coach. The decision came on the heels of a brutal 38-14 home loss to East Tennessee State that dropped Samford to 1-9 overall and 1-7 in Southern Conference play. It capped off a miserable stretch, during which the program has gone 2-13 in its last 15 games, with every loss this season coming by double digits. 

But Kirby Smart, with his last name, is in a position to get a brilliant weapon for Georgia’s offensive identity. Hatcher isn’t some recently fired FCS coach seeking employment. He’s a quarterback whisperer with more than 180 career wins, a Division II national championship on his resume from Valdosta State in 2004, and a reputation as one of the sharpest offensive minds in college football. 

However, a fascinating thing is that Kirby Smart owes his entire coaching career to Chris Hatcher. He gave Smart his first full-time coaching job back in 2000 at Valdosta State for a salary of $8,000 plus a $1,000 camp bonus. Smart crushed the job so thoroughly that Hatcher promoted him to defensive coordinator after just one season, and the defense ranked second in Division II in total defense.​

The family connection runs even deeper than that old bond from Valdosta State. Chris Hatcher’s son, Ty Hatcher, is currently on Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia as an offensive quality control coach. Ty, who’s only 25 years old, has already worked under Bill O’Brien at Alabama and Bobby Petrino at Texas A&M, and spent time at Oklahoma as a graduate assistant working with quarterbacks before Smart brought him to Athens in February 2025. Ty is also Smart’s right-hand man.

The young Hatcher is viewed as a rising star in the coaching profession, having climbed through some of college football’s most prestigious programs before his 25th birthday. Now imagine the pitch Smart could make to Chris Hatcher: come to Georgia, work alongside your son on one of the nation’s elite staffs, and help develop quarterbacks and offensive schemes under Mike Bobo’s coordination.

Smart has never been shy about hiring coaches with deep roots in FCS. Georgia’s current offensive coordinator, Mike Bobo, is a former head coach who came back to Athens after stops at Colorado State and South Carolina. Adding Hatcher to the staff would give the Bulldogs another offensive brain who’s seen it all and developed talent at every level. 

His offenses have consistently ranked among the national leaders in passing and scoring.  Samford finished second in the Southern Conference in passing yards per game as recently as 2024 despite the team’s struggles. 

That kind of offensive expertise, combined with his ability to develop quarterbacks, would be invaluable for a Georgia program that’s trying to maximize Gunner Stockton and maintain its championship-level offense.​

Breaking the bank for Kiffin

If Florida manages to pry Lane Kiffin away from Ole Miss, they’ll have to shatter every financial record in college football to do it. Right now, Kirby Smart sits atop the coaching salary pyramid at roughly $13 million per year. He has led Georgia to back-to-back national championships and established the Bulldogs as college football’s premier program. 

But the numbers floating around Kiffin’s potential move to Gainesville are absolutely staggering. Jeff Prosser heard rumors of a potential $20 million annual salary, surpassing Smart’s contract and making Kiffin the highest-paid coach in the sport by a significant margin. “What about $20 [million]?” Prosser teased on a recent episode of Swamp Sessions. 

CBS Sports’ Jake Winderman also mentioned the $20 million-per-year figure on social media. And the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi cited Sportrac reporting a potential $150 million bid for a 10-year contract, which would average out to $15 million annually, still significantly more than Smart’s current deal. Whatever the exact number ends up being, it’s clear Florida is prepared to go nuclear with its checkbook to land the coach it believes can restore the program to championship contention.

The problem for Florida is that getting Kiffin won’t just require outspending everyone. It’ll also mean paying his massive Ole Miss buyout and eating the $21.2 million they still owe Billy Napier after firing him mid-season. Kiffin’s contract automatically extended through 2031 after Ole Miss won its seventh game of the season. 

And his buyout currently sits at $36.6 million, ranking 15th nationally among the most expensive exits in college football. So if Florida wants to make this happen, they’re looking at potentially paying Napier’s buyout, covering Kiffin’s Ole Miss buyout, and then handing him a contract that dwarfs what Smart is making at Georgia. That’s an insane amount of money for a coach who’s never won a conference championship.