Kirby Smart says relationships, not championships, fuel his love of coaching
ATHENS, Ga. — The words serious, hard-charging, and focused can all be used to describe Kirby Smart. He meets with reporters in person about three times a week during the College Football season and he’s rarely smiley or giddy. But make no mistake, he loves his job.
Never too high, never too low. The seventh-year head coach lives by that. He’s a bundle of energy and gyrations as he roams the sideline every Saturday but the brain is trained to stay in one place — neutral. That’s something Kirby Smart learned from the late Trevor Moawad during their time together at Alabama and Georgia five-plus years ago.
That chosen demeanor and way of thinking has helped Kirby Smart be a part of five National Championships — four as an assistant coach and the most recent as the head coach. Winning titles is obviously a blast for the bulldog head man and all his players but when it comes to why he does what he does — what makes him happiest about being a coach — it’s the people.
“I love the relationship with my players,” Smart said after Tuesday’s practice. “I love the opportunity go from being a freshman that doesn’t know what he is going like Lewis Cine to a first-round pick. An opportunity for a guy like James Cook who gave everything he had to this university to go and become an NFL player. An opportunity for a walk-on like Dan Jackson to come here and live his dream and go play for UGA. That’s why I do what I do, not really anything else.”
Only Kirby Smart knows whether or not it has always been that way. Who could fault a young coach for getting into the business because he wants to continue being a part of competition, for wanting to be a part of a championship run?
But what we do know is that Smart’s comments come not long after he added “connection” as one of the pillars of his program. Kirby Smart, his coaches, and his players couldn’t talk about connection enough during the offseason that separated the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
There seemed to be endless mentions of the “skull sessions” that allowed players to mingle across position groups and the “my why” discussions designed to help players understand why each of them is chasing dreams in the way that they are.
Ideally these players build bonds that last a lifetime and develop into great members of society while also leading their program to a National Championship. Christopher Smith certainly seems to fall under that umbrella.
“It has been a 10/10 experience,” the senior safety said. “I have built a lot of connections with coaches and players. I have learned a lot about myself as a man. I even grew into myself as a man when I was here. Everybody when they are 18 thinks they are a man, but you don’t really realize until about four or five years later that you are just beginning to become a man. That is a whole synopsis of my time and experience here.”
