Kirby Smart killed a whole slew of birds with one stone on Saturday.
Georgia announced the hiring of Charlton Warren as its new defensive backs coach. Warren spent 2018 as the cornerbacks coach at Florida, where he was considered one of the best recruiters on the staff.
In a surely unrelated story, Kaiir Elam, a 4-star defensive back pursued by the Bulldogs and Gators, was in Athens on Saturday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Charlton is from Atlanta and has a wide range of experience coaching defensive football at several universities and conferences around the country,” Smart said in a statement.
“His entire coaching career has been on the defensive side of the ball and especially defensive backs,” Smart said. “He has developed an outstanding record and reputation in the coaching profession and he’ll bring great knowledge and energy to our staff.”
Warren’s hire is also a window into Smart’s thought process on his defensive coordinator hire. Mel Tucker served as Georgia’s defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach before leaving to become Colorado’s head coach, so hiring Warren would mean Smart would have to throw someone overboard to make room in the boat for a new defensive coordinator. Since that isn’t likely to happen, look for outside linebackers coach Dan Lanning or inside linebackers coach Glenn Schumann to be Georgia’s next defensive coordinator.