Kirby Smart lists coaches that impacted his career

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart looks to make history on Monday in the National Championship game versus TCU, as a win over the Horned Frogs would make him just the eighth head coach in college football history to win back-to-back National titles. As Smart prepares his team for their title defense, he reflected on some other coaches who have impacted his career, starting with his first.

“All coaches, I think we all plagiarize. I give a lot of credit to my father who was my first coach. And I grew up under his tutelage. And he meant a lot to me as a coach,” Smart said.

Kirby’s father Sonny was a successful coach in the Georgia high school ranks, coaching Kirby at Bainbridge high school and eventually being named to the Decatur County Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, he will not be able to attend the National Championship game for health reasons, but he’s clearly made an impact on Smart that he’ll carry with him into the game Monday.

Sonny Smart may have been Kirby’s first coach, but he wouldn’t be his last, as he listed other coaches he worked under prior to becoming UGA’s head coach that impacted him along the way.

“And then Coach Bowden impacted me a lot. Coach Chris Hatcher, Coach Richt. And I was with Coach Saban the longest,” Smart said.

Smart spent one season under Bobby Bowden at Florida State as a graduate assistant, two seasons under Hatcher at Valdosta State, one season under Mark Richt before returning to Athens in 2015, and eight seasons under Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

“I think you learn different things from different people. And I learned a lot from each one. So the impact has kind of made me who I am. And now you can’t stop learning. You never — you’re green, you grow. And when you’re ripe, you’re ripe. You never want to be ripe,” Smart said.

Smart has a very solid group of coaching mentors to look up to, but also isn’t opposed to learning from his peers, as he spoke on how he continues to learn as he and his staff look to secure a win on Monday on college football’s biggest stage.

“For me, I learn from my coaches. When you bring new coaches in, you’re able to gain things from them, maybe how they do things or you go to other schools and you study how they do things,” Smart explained. “I’m infatuated with coaches across the country who do an incredible job and you want to go visit them and see how they do it to make sure you keep getting better.”