1. The Nick Saban-Kirby Smart connection
Kirby Smart left Nick Saban’s Alabama staff to take over at Georgia ahead of the 2016 season. He had been with the Tide since Saban arrived in 2007, first as an assistant, then as the defensive coordinator from 2008 until he left for Georgia.
Smart has been the most successful of Saban’s former assistants. Georgia is 93-15 overall under Smart. The Dawgs reached the national title game in his second season, only to lost to Alabama (2nd-and-26). In his eight years in Athens, he’s led Georgia to 10-plus wins six times and 12-plus wins five times.
“I knew he’d be an outstanding head coach someday,” Saban said this week. “It’s phenomenal what he’s been able to accomplish at Georgia. I mean, to win as many games in a row, win a couple championships, have another chance to do it again a third time — I mean, that’s phenomenal.
“We won 19 games in a row here twice. I know how hard that was. It’s hard to sustain. So he’s done a phenomenal job of recruiting and developing. I think the result bears that out.”
Smart and Saban first linked up when Saban was at LSU. He hired Smart as his defensive backs coach. Saban hired Smart again in 2006 when he coached at the Dolphins. Smart was his defensive backs coach there, too.
“Just attention to detail, the ability to be locked down on the task at hand,” Smart said this week when asked what he learned from Saban. “His ability to compartmentalize and work at the task at hand was always incredible to me. It’s something that I try to do. I don’t know that I do it as well as he does.”
“I can’t say enough about the respect I have for him, the job he’s done, how long he’s done it,” Smart continued. “People don’t really understand how hard it is to be consistently really good, consistently great. He’s accomplished that at the highest level … he’s a really good leader. He’s good at motivating. I think he’s kind of evolved with the times in the way he goes about…
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