The Kirby smart era won’t truly begin until August—spare me the Spring Ball stuff, people—but we do have an early, clear sense of what Kirby will seek to do on offense.

Welcome to Bama 2.0, folks.

Mark Richt (peace be upon him) dabbled in Bama-ization (or is it Saban-ization?) in the dying light of his tenure, but we’re about to witness a full-fledged attempt at replicating the Alabama machine with Kirby in charge.

The first thing Kirby did was bring his self-proclaimed right-hand man with him in Glenn Schumann. What role Schumann will have is unclear, but I’d bet on him being a coach on the field. Schumann was one of Saban’s infamous support staff hires whose roles are cloudy, but you don’t leave Alabama to be a staffer elsewhere, so smart money is on Schumann stepping up in the coaching world.

Kirby’s second big move (bigger than bringing in Schumann) was hiring Jim Chaney as his offensive coordinator, which also locked up Arkansas’ OL coach Sam Pittman (a real coup, it should be noted). The Chaney hire is what hammered home the concept of what Kirby wanted at Georgia. He wants to replicate the Alabama methodology of big, physical, and imposing offensive lines with play-action deep shots and TEs crossing over the middle.

Sounds a lot like Alabama, no?

Being the next Alabama sounds like peaches and cream, sure, but my issue with this approach is how difficult it will be to pull off. Kirby might very well be as good as advertised. Perhaps he’s the Darth Vader to Saban’s Palpatine, but the problem is Palpatine (to hammer this metaphor into the ground) got whatever the hell he wanted without question.

If Saban asked his AD for a support staffer who did nothing but stare at the weakside safety all game, he got it. Without questions, too. He didn’t have to rationalize why he wanted to pay someone $80,000 a year, he was simply asked what the job posting should say and then to hire whomever he wanted.

That’s not “The Georgia Way.” The Georgia Way is to pinch pennies needlessly because Greg McGarity would rather jerk off to the size of his reserve fund than to spend money like the Alabamas of the world. The Georgia Way requires written proof why a staff member needs to be hired. Many of us die hard fans who pay more attention to the program than they should have long worried that the real issue with Georgia was less Mark Richt and more of the lack of 100 percent all-in efforts by the Administration.

If McGarity and his ilk are inclined to act like a big boy football power they say they want, becoming Alabama 2.0 is a real possibility, or at least becoming something that looks and feels like the Tide under Saban. Replicating Saban’s run will be almost impossible if we’re being honest.

But perhaps Kirby has absorbed as much of “the process” as one can, and perhaps he’s ready to bring it to Athens. I just don’t know if the movers and shakers in the UGA Athletics Department are ready to do the same.