Mel Tucker's Reported Move to Georgia Won't Impact Alabama in Title Game

The last piece of new Georgia head coach Kirby Smart's staff could be falling into place, and it could come from his old stomping grounds.

According to Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports, Alabama defensive backs coach Mel Tucker will be named Georgia's new defensive coordinator after finishing up his responsibilities with the Crimson Tide—which will square off against top-ranked Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday night.

Tucker came to Alabama this year after a decade in the NFL and immediately turned around the Crimson Tide secondary—the biggest sore spot on the defense. Alabama gave up an SEC-worst 133 passing plays of 10 or more yards a year ago during its College Football Playoff run but cut that number down to 94 in 2015—sixth in the conference.

Eddie Jackson was named a first-team All-SEC performer at safety after Tucker moved him from cornerback prior to the season, Marlon Humphrey and Minkah Fitzpatrick were named to the SEC All-Freshman team, and the Crimson Tide finished with the nation's 18th-best pass defense (186.0 yards per game).

"They've got a bunch of secondary guys that are going to be first-rounders when their team comes," said Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney leading up to Monday's title game, according to CollegePressBox.com. "So they're a complete group, no doubt."

With Tucker set to join Smart in the "Classic City," will that be a distraction?

Not at all. 

In fact, Georgia and Alabama have handled this transition about as well as possible.

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

Today is a travel day for Clemson and Alabama, so whatever distractions existed as Smart and Tucker discussed the possibility of Tucker's moving to Athens will be left in the Southeast as the Tide travel to Arizona.

Is it a coincidence that the news leaked out on Thursday night, the day before the team departed? Of course not.

The recruiting dead period lasts until Jan. 13, Tucker and Smart can't visit face-to-face with prospects anyway since they're going to be in Arizona on Friday, and the rest of the Georgia staff is essentially already in place.

For Georgia, you had to give Smart time.

While he was busy double-dipping as defensive coordinator of the Crimson Tide, he had to assemble his staff as the head coach of Georgia. Kevin Sherrer served as the interim defensive coordinator in Georgia's TaxSlayer Bowl win over Penn State and was retained by Smart without a title in December.

Georgia knew Smart had to be smart about how he approached hiring coaches off the Tide staff to prevent any friction between Smart and Alabama head coach Nick Saban, and it did just that.

Tucker is a tremendous hire for Georgia based on his familiarity with Smart, success at Alabama, NFL ties and specific work as a coordinator for the Cleveland Browns (2008), Jacksonville Jaguars (2009-2012) and Chicago Bears (2013-2014).

This is the perfect scenario for Georgia, for Smart and for Alabama. Smart appears to have his guy, didn't rush things and kept Saban happy as the Tide made their run to the title game.

Everybody wins.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.