Bill Shanks: Kirby Smart looks to follow Alabama blueprint
We were greatly entertained Monday night by Alabama and Clemson. That's exactly what you want in a national championship game between two great teams. It was a heavyweight bout, with Alabama simply outlasting Clemson, but not by much.
Some could say if these teams were really that good, there would have been more defense. Well, that's ridiculous. These were two great teams, so no one should be shocked at the big plays that lit up the scoreboard.
There should be no surprise that Clemson quarterback DeShaun Watson accounted for 478 offensive yards or that Alabama running back Derrick Henry ran for 158 yards or even that Alabama tight end O.J Howard had two long touchdown catches and had 208 total receiving yards. These were great players on the biggest stage in college football.
But this game was all about lines of scrimmage. Sure, there were 1,023 total offensive yards between the two teams. At times, both teams had breakdowns on their lines, but that was because the other team's line was pretty good, as well. Good players are occasionally going to get beat by other good players, but those two teams were there due to the beef on the offensive and defensive lines.
This game came down to big plays. Alabama had four scores of 50 yards of more. That's what Alabama does, really. The Crimson Tide make big plays and did that to win another national title.
To say it's an indictment on outgoing Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart that Alabama gave up 550 offensive yards is absurd. The new Georgia head coach likely did not expect to shut down Watson, who was one of the best players in college football this season.
Smart is now on the job full-time in Athens, and he has a great blueprint to construct a program. That's what this will be -- a full-fledged construction project. No, the Georgia program wasn't necessarily broken, but it's nowhere near where it needs to be if it's to become a champion.
When Smart really analyzes the depth chart, he'll understand that. When he looks closely at the returning players on the lines of scrimmage, he'll know he's not in Tuscaloosa anymore.
Smart likely will never accumulate the depth Nick Saban has through the years, but Smart knows full well what it takes to build a program. He's going after linemen, on both sides of the ball. Georgia desperately needs more offensive linemen, particularly to protect the supposed savior of the program, new freshman quarterback Jacob Eason
What has been most impressive, however, is Smart's attempt to truly change the culture in Athens. You do that by changing the people, and only two members of the previous coaching staff were retained, and there are numerous new support staff members who will be moving to Athens.
Smart is putting his stamp on this program, and now he can do it full time. His ability to walk into the home of a recruit and talk about what he helped accomplish at Alabama and how he wants to do it at Georgia is tremendously valuable. And for Smart to tell those kids how special it will be to do it at his alma mater, the program he always has loved the most, will be the most important part.
Smart has a lot of work to do, but he could not have had a better apprenticeship than his time in Alabama. He knows what it takes, what Saban has done, and now the new Georgia coach just has to do it. Georgia just fired a head coach after he won nine games, so Smart knows what he did as an assistant Monday night is what the goal is for him as the new head coach in Athens.
Listen to "The Bill Shanks Show" from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WPLA Fox Sports 1670 AM in Macon and online at www.foxsports1670.com/. Follow Bill at twitter.com/BillShanks and email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.
This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Bill Shanks: Kirby Smart looks to follow Alabama blueprint ."