Kirby Smart recalls key lesson learned from his father's own high school coaching tenure

The Georgia Bulldogs‘ head coach Kirby Smart is a native Alabamian, born and spending most of his youth in Montgomery, AL. But a high school coaching opportunity for his father opened the door for the Bulldogs’ headman to become one of Georgia’s favorite imports. During a recent interview, Smart revisited the steps that led to his family moving to Georgia while recalling the key lesson he learned from his father’s own high school coaching tenure.

“Yeah, it was a hard time. Both my parents were in up in Montgomery, and they felt like they needed to move closer to my mother’s parents and my father’s parents,” said Smart. “So, both sets of my grandparents; they wanted to get closer. And the only way to get closer from Montgomery to really what was Tampa and Dothan, AL, they found the perfect setting in Bainbridge, GA, to do that.

“It was a great location, great community, (and) great state. And, of course, he got offered a job; (he) said he was going to take it. And then, about a couple weeks later, he got offered another job. And he asked his dad what to do, and pretty cool, he said, ‘Hey, have you already told them you’re taking that job? So, it’s important that you’re a man of your word and that you reflect that.’ And I think my dad helped set those ideas for me.”

The Georgia head coach has had his fair share of lessons and teachers along the way. Still, the lesson that he learned from his father during his time as a high school coach has remained with Smart through the years. And that idea of being a man of your word is a lesson that he also shares and instills in his Bulldogs players.

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Smart would decide to stay in Georgia and enroll at the University of Georgia instead of returning to Alabama to attend college. He’d spend four years with the Bulldogs, from 1995 to 1998, before becoming an admin assistant at Georgia following a brief stay in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts.

Smart got his first titled coaching opportunity with the LSU Tigers as a part of Nick Saban‘s coaching staff. From there, he’d stay close to the now Crimson Tide headman, accompanying him the majority of the way until the two parted ways when Smart accepted the head coaching position at his alma mater in 2016. From there, the rest is history. Smart is still the headman at Georgia and is looking to do something that has even eluded Saban by winning the national championship in three straight years.