South Carolina Football: Alabama’s Kirby Smart emerges as front-runner for Gamecocks job

Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart has emerged as the leading candidate for the South Carolina job. 

In October, former South Carolina Gamecocks head coach, Steve Spurrier, retired. Ever since Spurrier’s retirement the team has looked at finding a competent replacement. Several candidates have been rumored for the job, such as Texas’ Charlie Strong, Houston’s Tom Herman and Memphis’ Justin Fuente.

However, Strong recently expressed to the media that he would not be leaving Texas anytime soon. And Herman expressed his desire to stay at Houston following a massive raise, so that leaves Alabama Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart as the leading candidate and the front-runner to get the Gamecocks job, according to a reports from Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman.

Smart has worked as an assistant under Nick Saban since 2007 and has been the team’s defensive coordinator since February of 2008. Since his promotion, the Crimson Tide have won three national championships, three SEC championships and annually rank among the best defenses in the nation.

As always, it is difficult to predict that a successful coordinator will make an outstanding head coach. Could Smart be the next Will Muschamp and flame out as a head coach after a successful career as an assistant? Or could Smart be the next rising start and use this job in South Carolina as a potential launching pad for him to be considered a successor to Saban when he decided to retire?

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One thing’s for sure, Smart has learned under one of the greatest head coaches in NCAA history. If Smart decides to become the next Gamecocks coach and South Carolina decides they want him, he will need to make sure that he has an excellent offensive coordinator to help him develop a strong scheme to complement his defense.