STATESBORO - Georgia Southern head football coach Clay Helton announced Friday the hiring of Ryan Smith as the general manager of the Eagle football program, giving Helton and the Eagles a key behind-the-scenes staffer for the program who concentrates on recruiting. Smith comes to Statesboro after a season in the highly competitive Southeastern Conference as Auburn's director of player personnel.

"We are very excited to welcome our new General Manager of player personnel Ryan Smith," Helton said. "Ryan has worked at the highest level of college football and understands exactly what it takes to put together championship football teams. He has acquired elite knowledge of our recruiting area in the time he has spent in both the SEC and ACC conferences. The future of recruiting is very bright under his leadership."

Before his time at Auburn, Smith had stints working under Mack Brown at North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Gus Malzahn at Auburn in the SEC. He was an offensive recruiting analyst with the Tar Heels for two seasons and spent the 2018 season as a personnel and operations assistant at Auburn.

"I am blessed and humbled for the opportunity to work for a man like Coach Helton at such a tradition-rich place as Georgia Southern," Smith said. "The best is yet to come!"

During his time at UNC, Smith assisted in the recruiting needs of the Tar Heels' offensive coaching staff, helping manage film, evaluations and information on prospects. He also helped with on-campus visits and arranged recruiting travel plans for UNC's offensive assistants. While on staff, the Tar Heels landed back-to-back top-15 signing classes. UNC's 2020 class ranked 13th nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings, while the 2021 group finished 14th.

A 2015 graduate of Baylor, Smith began his career in 2017 at Angelo State, a Division II program, as an offensive quality control coach while also assisting with the program's quarterbacks. He then joined Malzahn's staff at Auburn the following season.