Relentless: What I've Learned About Kirby Smart

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has just finished winning his second consecutive national title. After four years covering the sport's greatest head coach and CEO, here's what I've learned.

Author:
Brooks Austin
Updated:
Jan 11, 2023 10:30 AM EST

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Georgia Bulldogs

Kirby Paul Smart was born the son of a high school football coach Sonny Smart and his wife Sharon Smart. A product of Bainbridge, Georgia deep down in Southwest, Georgia, Smart's story arch was always going to yield the results of a football coach. Though success wasn't always a given, at least not at this rate.

So, how did we get here? How did Kirby Smart go from Saban's apprentice to another one of Saban's assistants that can't beat him, to arguably the greatest active coach in college football on top of the sport for two consecutive seasons for the first time in the college football playoff era?

Well, they say success leaves clues, and after four years of observations on Kirby Smart, I think I've learned a few things about the man.

Relentlessness

He can't turn it off. In an era of college football where the coaching calendar is 24/7, 365, it's required coaching staffs to work hours unlike ever before and there's not a staff in America that works harder than Georgia's, it's a byproduct of their football coach.

I was standing behind a Georgia football coach at a high school game this season, and a fellow position coach from a direct competitor approached him, and they began to exchange general banter. I overheard the competing coach say to the UGA coach, "Man, this is the first time I've been out all season." I'd personally seen that UGA coach three times to date. It matters. When Georgia is in Jacksonville, Florida to play the Gators, and Todd Hartley drives to Valdosta, Georgia to see commits Ny Carr and Landen Thomas play... that matters. When Dell McGee flies to San Diego the night before playing in Columbia, Missouri, just to see Roderick Robinson II play... that matters.

TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said it best this week, "We work in an industry where if you give us coaches the option to work, we are going to work." And no one works harder than Kirby Smart.

Obsessive Over the Details

There's not a single thing going on around the Georgia football program that Kirby Smart doesn't have his hands all over. He is obsessive-compulsive about the smallest of things. For example, the bus was late by four minutes arriving to the stadium Monday night, and I heard multiple equipment management staffers fretting about the "ass-chewing" they'd be receiving after the game for such a blatant mistake on their part. He coaches everyone, and he coaches everyone hard.

From the press box Monday night I noticed Jalen Carter getting into a little bit of a discussion with TCU players just as the first half ended, they were on the opposite side of the field from the Georgia bench at about the 45-yard line. Kirby Smart is typically one of the first people running to the locker room because he's got interviews to handle before getting in to talk to his players. Yet, for the first time all season, Kirby Smart takes a beeline to the middle of the field, he grabs his guys and then heads to the locker room.

His eyes are always in the right spot where they need to be to make the coaching decision and impact that he needs. How else does the 4th & 2 timeout against Ohio State with 8:24 left in the fourth quarter?

Love

Kirby Smart is not easy to play for, and he's damn sure not easy to coach for, but people are seemingly jumping at the opportunity to do so. Why? Well, it's clear when you see the way these players respond to him that they know the coaching, the yelling, the constant pressure, it's based on love.

Nakobe Dean told a story last year prior to their first national title, about his first week on campus. He said that he was exhausted and overwhelmed with the workload of practice and his first week of classes in the engineering program at Georgia. Smart came over to him, and said "I've noticed you look tired." Dean confirmed as much, Smart quickly responded. "I don't care." It was blunt, to the point, but it was honest. No one cares about your reasons for not doing the work, Dean said that it was the one of the biggest lessons he learned during his time at Georgia. "All that recruiting rankings and stuff, it doesn't matter. It's all about what you can take and what you can put out. That's all that matters."

Find Your Why

Football coaches for ages have talked about finding your why. Finding the reasons why you do what you do. So, in what was Kirby Smart's final press conference of the year, I felt it necessary to ask the man himself, what's your why? His response?

These men. I mean, I know my why every day. It starts with my family. It starts with my wife over there and our kids. And these men because there's not one thing I wouldn't do for these men. And I hate being in that locker room for the last time because that team will never be together again. Coach Richt always touched me when he talked about Paul Oliver, and he talked about this is a young man that ended up losing his life because he felt like he didn't have somewhere to turn and his career was over and he felt like he was defined by football. And these guys play football, but that's not who they are. And I think life's a whole lot bigger. It's a lot more important to me that I'm a good father and husband than I am a coach. And I tell my wife -- I texted her last night before the game, I said, I was like I feel like I haven't been as good a husband and father as I can be because I spend so much time doing this. And you know what, these men are why I do it. And I do it for them because I want them to be successful. And I want the University of Georgia to have impact in their life like it did mine.

I don't think you can overlook the Mary Beth Smart part of this equation either. Kirby Smart isn't just a football coach, he's a father of three children as well. Three children that have spent as much time with mom and only mom as Kirby Smart has spent grinding the tape or landing the next five star.