Saw this on the other board and in an article here. Pretty similar circumstances, a first-year head coach who was a D-coordinator taking over a solid winning program.
In Smart's first year, Georgia went 8-5 with a squeaker 26-24 win over Nicholls State, who finished 5-6 in FCS. Scored only 14, 16 and 10 points im losses to Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Florida.
Those of you already definitively saying Marcus Freeman was the wrong hire need to keep in mind Georgia fans (I live in South Carolina and work in Savannah) were saying the exact same things about Smart, who had a very similar first year to what we're seeing with Freeman. (I've already mentioned several times the same happened to Swinney with Clemson.) And recruits didn't start to "jump ship." Georgia has the #3 class in 2017.
Freeman might turn out to be another Faust...or he might turn out to be another Smart. So all this talk that he's already run his course and we should bring in another coach after this year is just foolish. We'll have a better idea of what he can accomplish a year from now. Be patient.