Kirby Smart shares impact Nick Saban has had in building Georgia program

There is a longstanding history between Alabama’s Nick Saban and Georgia’s Kirby Smart, the two head coaches in Monday’s National Championship. Smart first coached under Saban in 2004 as LSU’s defensive backs coach. He then joined Saban’s staff with the Miami Dolphins in 2006, and later followed Saban to Alabama in 2007.

From 2008-2015, Smart served under Saban as Alabama’s defensive coordinator. In 2016, Smart was hired to become Georgia’s new head coach. While Smart and Saban are about to go head on with a National Championship on the line, the Georgia coach knows that he might not be where he is today if not for the lessons he learned under Saban.

“My biggest goal was to be successful when I came to Georgia,” Smart said. “When you take on your first head coaching job, I was very fortunate to work under some really good head coaches, the likes of Coach Saban, Coach Bowden, Coach Richt and my father. And a lot of those people impacted me.”

Smart learned how to build Georgia’s program from Saban

Working under Saban for so many years has proven to be valuable for Smart as Georgia’s head coach. Despite many years as an assistant, most of which were under Saban, Smart never served as a head coach prior to Georgia.

Saban is undoubtedly a college football legend, and he has built a true dynasty at Alabama. The lessons Smart learned from Saban have carried over to his time with the Bulldogs, and that is being proven both on and off the field.

“But as far as the way we organize and run the program, most of that came from my time spent with Coach Saban,” Smart added. “There was a year at LSU, a year at Dolphins. You take a lot of things from the places you come from in your history. That’s certainly helped shape me as a coach.

“The goal was to have a successful program. And the state of Georgia and the high school coaches and the support you get in the state of Georgia for football makes it a very fertile area. You’re always going to have a good recruiting base. And we’ve been able to have that.

“If you recruit well, have good coaches, have good development, good strength program you’re going to have a chance at success. And that was certainly the goal from the outset.”

Monday night will be the second time Smart and Saban have gone head on with a national title on the line. Saban came out on top last time, and Smart is looking to come away with a win to cap an impressive season this year for Georgia.