Georgia's Kirby Smart isn't the first rookie head coach in Southeastern Conference football history to experience turbulence after a successful run as a defensive coordinator at a prominent program.
He's simply the latest.
Vanderbilt's Derek Mason and Kentucky's Mark Stoops went a combined 5-19 overall and 0-16 in league games during their inaugural seasons as SEC head coaches. Mason went 3-9 after predecessor James Franklin posted consecutive 9-4 records, making Georgia's slide to 4-3 under Smart after two consecutive 10-3 seasons pale in comparison.
"As a first-year head coach in the SEC, the pressure to win and be successful and to build programs and manage games is different than in any other conference, and I don't care which program it is," Mason said. "For me, it was adjusting to the time demands and everything that was necessary to put a great product on the field, and then there was speaking to my athletes and trying to develop great relationships from the time I got here to the start of the season - all those things were shortened.
"I didn't get the time that I wanted, but nobody necessarily does. You just have to sort of go through it and figure it out, and after that first year you make the adjustments that are necessary to move your program forward."
The Commodores improved to 4-8 last year and could get to 4-4 this season with a win Saturday over Tennessee State. Mason, who was Stanford's defensive coordinator before coming to Vanderbilt, lost his first 11 SEC games but is a more competitive 3-6 since, having stunned Smart's Bulldogs 17-16 last Saturday inside Sanford Stadium.
Smart, like Mason, is following a successful predecessor. Mark Richt went 145-51 in 15 seasons with the Bulldogs, leading the program to SEC titles in 2002 and 2005, but the lack of a league championship in Richt's final 10 seasons resulted in his ouster last November.
After eight years as Alabama's defensive coordinator under Nick Saban that yielded four national championships, Smart returned to his alma mater and had an exciting debut when the Bulldogs rallied from a 24-14 deficit against North Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game for a 33-24 triumph. The Bulldogs briefly looked like the SEC East Division team to beat after Labor Day weekend, but their next three games included escapes of Nicholls State (26-24) and Missouri (28-27) before a shellacking by Ole Miss (45-16).
"Every game has come down to the fourth quarter with the exception of Ole Miss," Smart said. "Every one of those games easily could have gone either way. That's SEC football. Welcome to the world we live in as coaches."
Had the Bulldogs knocked down Tennessee's Hail Mary on the final play and not stumbled against Vanderbilt - Georgia outgained the Commodores by 250 yards - they would be 6-1 heading into their lone open date of the season. Yet they needed a fourth-and-10 touchdown to defeat Mizzou and have too many issues to be considered a quality team even if they were sitting 6-1.
Special teams have been a continuing debacle, and Georgia enters its stretch run unsure of whether it ever can run effectively and throw effectively in the same game.
What Smart isn't concerning himself with is what Saban refers to as outside "clutter." Georgia's last head coach who had a better inaugural-year record than his predecessor was Vince Dooley, who went 7-3-1 in 1964 after Johnny Griffith went 4-5-1 the previous year.
"With this job comes criticism, and I'm accepting of that," Smart said. "I've seen it with good friends. I've seen it with programs I've been in. That doesn't scare me. What I'm worried about is our team and our players developing and getting better.
"That's the most important thing."
Stoops was Florida State's defensive coordinator when Kentucky gave him a head-coaching opportunity, and his 2-10 debut in 2012 was followed by consecutive 5-7 marks. This year's Wildcats are 3-3, with Stoops saying, "I think we're getting out from being six feet underground like we were."
Whether Smart chooses to pursue this path down the road remains to be seen, but Mason and Stoops are calling defensive plays again, just as they did as coordinators.
"I feel comfortable being a defensive play-caller now, and that was certainly not the case four years ago," Stoops said. "There are just so many things that need to be done to build a program. We're continuing to build this program in many ways, but I certainly feel like I have the ability to be a defensive play-caller and spend more time with the fine details."
The biggest positive in Smart's first season is a freshman class that contains quarterback Jacob Eason, running back Brian Herrien, receiver Riley Ridley, tight end Isaac Nauta, and defensive linemen Julian Rochester, David Marshall and Tyler Clark. The next biggest plus appears to be a class of commitments that is currently ranked No. 5 nationally by 247Sports.com.
Georgia's future looks brighter than its present heading into next week's trip to Jacksonville, and Smart's future could be bright if he can improve from the experiences learned in year one.
"I'm right back to center in terms of being who I am," Mason said. "If you don't have a strong personality or know who you are, you can get lost in the shuffle. Everybody has an opinion of what you should do and how you should do it, but you have to stick to what you know and make tough decisions and surround yourself with a staff that sort of embodies who you are.
"I think that's exactly what I've done. I'm more comfortable in my own shoes, and I also like the men around me."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.