ATHENS -- Kirby Smart turned to a former Georgia head coach to find his new wide receivers coach.
Bryan McClendon, who remains the Bulldogs’ winningest football coach with a career winning percentage of 1.000, was tabbed to coach Georgia’s receivers on Sunday, according to persons connected to the football program.
Previously, McClendon served as interim head coach for the Bulldogs in December of 2015, after Mark Richt was fired and before Smart took over full time. McClendon oversaw Georgia’s 24-17 win over Penn State in the TaxSlayer Bowl on Jan. 2, 2016. Smart didn’t join the Bulldogs until Alabama’s 2015 season was completed with a win over Clemson in the College Football Playoff national championship game 10 days later. So McClendon is in Georgia’s historical archives as a 1-0 head coach.
This time, McClendon will be replacing Cortez Hankton, who left Georgia earlier this month to accept a similar position at LSU. McClendon had a pretty good job as it was. He followed Mario Cristobal from Oregon to Miami to become the Hurricanes’ receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator. McClendon’s appointment at Georgia surely will carry such extraneous titles as well. Hankton was considered Georgia’s passing-game coordinator in addition to wide receivers coach.
Meanwhile, UGA is in the process of restructuring its contract with current offensive coordinator Todd Monken. Monken, Georgia’s offensive coordinator for the last two years, has one year remaining on a contract that pays him $1.5 million annual. Monken’s name surfaced for several other positions in college and the NFL in the last couple of months. But he plans to stick with the Bulldogs.
McClendon, 38, becomes the fourth coordinator on Georgia’s coaching staff. Smart added another former offensive coordinator to Georgia’s payroll this past week when he brought in Mike Bobo as an offensive analyst. Bobo had been fired as Auburn’s OC at the end of the regular season. His son Drew signed with the Bulldogs as an offensive lineman as well.
Also, offensive analyst Buster Faulkner is a former offensive coordinator at Southern Miss. He came to Georgia with Monken to assist with quarterbacks, in particular.
While McClendon has worked with receivers lately and played that position for the Bulldogs under Richt (2002-05), he earned his reputation as a world-class recruiter as Georgia’s running backs coach from 2009-13. It was during that run that he helped bring running backs Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Todd Gurley, Keith Marshall and Isaiah Crowell to UGA.
In addition to Oregon and Miami, McClendon also has worked at South Carolina and had a brief offseason stint in the NFL.
But McClendon’s roots at UGA are deep. He’s part of a family legacy that includes current offensive lineman Warren McClendon and his father is Georgia Hall of Fame running back Willie McClendon.
UGA has yet to officially announce McClendon’s hire. Check back for more details.
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