Kirby Smart reflects on childhood, relationship with father

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is only a few days away from the biggest game of his football coaching life. The upcoming national championship game against Alabama is not only massive for the Bulldogs’ football program, but Smart’s coaching legacy, as well. Earlier in the week, he spoke with reporters about some of the life lessons he learned growing up around the game of football.

“My dad was a high school coach. I grew up around football. I grew up around players. I got a lot of friends and family back there, and I’m proud of where I’m from. You ask these guys where they’re from, everybody takes pride in where they’re from. I take a lot of pride in being from south Georgia where we played good football and I grew up around a lot of good football players,” Smart said.

The Georgia head coach talked about how much it meant to him to pass along the memories of the game to his son.

“Those are the guys I kind of grew up looking up to, and now I get to watch my son look up to these two guys and they take him under their wing like the players did me, so it’s something to be proud of,” he said.

Kirby Smart’s Coaching Legacy

Win or lose in the College Football Playoff National Championship against Alabama, Kirby Smart will go down as one of the greatest college football coaches in today’s game. He was one of the best defensive coordinators in college football under his former mentor, Nick Saban. He’s also taken the Georgia football program to a level they haven’t seen in a really, really long time. Since he took over in 2016, this will be the Bulldogs’ second national championship game appearance against the Alabama Crimson Tide. That in itself is remarkably impressive.

He’s one of the greatest defensive minds the game will ever see. But blowout in the SEC Championship Game this year will leave his resume with a huge blemish unless he can redeem himself in the national championship game.

At the very least, Georgia needs to make the game very competitive. Fair or not, coaches are judged by what they do in the big moments when the bright lights are on. Much like the Bulldogs’ players, Smart and his staff were taken to school in the SEC Championship Game.

The biggest question college football fans have to ask themselves in this game is this: If Kirby Smart can’t defeat Nick Saban with a historically good front seven, when will he? It’s a fair question to ask.

The questions and the critics will only grow louder with another loss to Alabama. The only way for Georgia to silence its critics will be to take care of business on the field on Jan. 10.

The 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship Game is on Jan. 10. The game will be played in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kickoff is set for 8:00 p.m. EST.