Kirby Smart provides insight into Jimbo Fisher-Nick Saban feud, why not to worry

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked to provide more insight into the recent feud between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher given his familiarity with the duo throughout the years. With years of experience working with and around the two head coaches in the SEC over the years, his input has helped piece together the puzzle.

At the SEC’s conference meetings in Destin, Florida on Tuesday, Kirby Smart provided a look inside Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher’s complicated relationship and shared why he is not worried.

“They don’t call, I don’t call them,” said Smart, via On3’s Jesse Simonton. “There might be some conversation between a few guys. You have a friendship, you’ve been on a staff with somebody. I talked to Will (Muschamp) when he was a head coach some, but it’s not commonplace for guys to be reaching out.”

A follow-up question came on the accusation made by Fisher against Saban’s recruiting methods in the past. Smart avoided any comment on that issue.

“My phone started blowing up right when Jimbo hit the press conference and I haven’t thought about it in any since,” said Smart. “In the world that we operate in, you’re worried about what’s in front of you right now – which is 15 recruits that I’m trying to get on the phone with, conversations I’m trying to have. I’m not really worried about a feud between two guys that used to sit in the same staff meetings and have similar conversations. At the end of the day, I’d rather it not be in the public arena. … It just so happened it was in front of everybody. It’s not something I prefer to comment on, I’m worried about what we do at Georgia.”

Kirby Smart puts feud into context

Kirby Smart also put the situation into hilarious perspective, saying the public comments were nothing compared to what gets said during games. He made quite a comparison to Saban and Fisher’s remarks, which were highly publicized after Saban alleged Texas A&M “bought every player on their team” two weeks ago.

“You guys should be on the headphones [during a game] sometime,” Smart said. “You’d think that was Mickey Mouse.”

After Saban’s initial comments, Fisher turned around and called Saban a “narcissist” during an emergency press conference. Saban later apologized on SiriusXM. That led to a public reprimand from Sankey and the SEC, and it adds to the intrigue of the meetings.