Georgia football: Dawgs don’t have to find a new defensive coordinator after all

The Georgia Bulldogs will not be losing defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann to the NFL.

After seeing Todd Monken leave for the Baltimore Ravens, Glenn Schumann is staying at Georgia.

While the Dawgs had another contingency plan in place if their co-defensive coordinator were to leave, Schumann is not joining Nick Sirianni’s Philadelphia Eagles staff. Schumann interviewed with the Birds to replace Jonathan Gannon, who now leads the Arizona Cardinals. Georgia already lost its former star offensive coordinator to the NFL in Monken, so Kirby Smart has to be excited.

Let’s discuss what this means for Schumann’s budding coaching career and the Georgia program.

Glenn Schumann staying at Georgia after interviewing with Philadelphia Eagles

Schumann has been on Smart’s staff since he took over in Athens ahead of the 2016 college football season. Although there were chances Schumann could have gone back to his alma mater to rejoin Nick Saban at Alabama, he remains a Dawg for now. This is huge for not only recruiting purposes, but probably signifies Schumann will be getting his own Power Five team here soon.

To date, three Smart assistants have gone on to lead P5 teams of their own. Mel Tucker was the first to leave, initially to Colorado before taking over at Michigan State. Sam Pittman is a terrific fit at Arkansas (yessir!). Dan Lanning is coming off a strong first season at Oregon as well. In short, Schumann has got next. He will be a candidate to lead a P5 team heading into the 2024 season.

Since Smart was … smart enough to see potential obstacles down the line, he built in a few contingency plans should he lose top assistants to marquee jobs. Monken never stays anywhere for very long, so him going back to the NFL was not the least bit surprising. It is why he promoted his former teammate Mike Bobo from within, who had already been Georgia’s coordinator before.

Had Schumann left for the Eagles, Smart would have had, you guessed it, another former UGA teammate to somewhat promote from within. Will Muschamp is already their co-defensive coordinator, but he would be more than capable of handling it all by himself. He may have been a so-so SEC head coach at Florida and South Carolina, but Muschamp can coordinate a defense.

What you have to understand in all this is Schumann has gotten into that territory of Tucker, Pittman, Lanning and Monken. He will leave because a better opportunity will open up for him. Smart is fortunate that not only two of his former college teammates in Bobo and Muschamp are excellent coordinators, but their sons are on his football team and get to enjoy this experience.

Schumann may be back in Athens for the 2023 campaign, but anything beyond this fall is gravy.

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