Ten years of Kirby Smart at Georgia

ATHENS, Ga. -- During a fundraising event this summer, a stranger approached Georgia football coach Kirby Smart to share a story about her daughter, who had recently graduated from the university.

While the woman's daughter was a student, she lived near the Bulldogs' football facility. Whenever the pressures of college stacked up -- an important test, a long day of classes and studying -- she found relief in an unlikely place: stepping outside to hear Smart screaming at his players through a bullhorn during practice.

"It made her feel so much better that she wasn't in football practice," the woman said.

For the past decade, students jogging down Lumpkin Street or filling up their vehicles at a nearby gas station have heard the familiar shouts of Smart calling out a player who made a mistake or was loafing in practice.

With the No. 5 Bulldogs preparing to host No. 17 Alabama in another SEC heavyweight bout at Sanford Stadium on Saturday (7:30 p.m ET, ABC), Smart figures to be louder than ever this week.

It's the only volume Smart has known during his 10-year tenure as his alma mater's coach, in which he has guided the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships (2021-22), three SEC titles and four College Football Playoff appearances.

"In one sense, it's like it has flown by," said Smart, who played defensive back at Georgia from 1995 to '98. "But in another sense, it feels like an eternity. With everything that has transpired the last few years, just in terms of the sport, transfer portal, NIL, everything, it almost seems longer. It seems like the last three or four years have been an eternity because of the changes."

Only Kentucky's Mark Stoops, in his 13th season with the Wildcats, has a longer tenure in the SEC. And with former Alabama coach Nick Saban retiring before the 2024 season, no other SEC coach has been as successful as Smart, who has a 108-19 record since taking over in 2016.

Remarkably, the Bulldogs have had more NFL first-round draft picks (20) than losses under Smart.

"I don't like looking back because I like looking at it as, 'What can we still do?'" Smart said. "If you told me that was what the 10 years would entail, I probably would have said, 'Well, could we have done more?' There will be time to reflect on this. It's not now."

SMART, 49, SEEMS as determined as ever to keep the Bulldogs in the hunt for another CFP national championship, even as the sport's rapidly changing landscape has made it more difficult for programs to stockpile talent, develop young players and build rosters like the ones that helped him end Georgia's 41-year drought in 2021.

The program that couldn't win the big one for decades finally got over the hump -- and past nemesis Alabama -- with a 33-18 victory against the Crimson Tide in the CFP National Championship game after the 2021 season. Georgia went 15-0 and blasted TCU 65-7 to win a second straight CFP title in 2022.

"Those should be the expectations at Georgia because the talent, [recruiting base], the support, all the stuff you need is here," Smart said. "All you've got to do is take it and point it in the right direction and be really demanding and hold people accountable and then you need a little luck."​​

The results speak for themselves: Since 2016, the only FBS program that has been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll more than Georgia (39 weeks) is Alabama (67). Between December 2021 and December 2023, the Bulldogs won 29 games in a row, the longest streak in SEC history. They'll carry a 33-game home winning streak into Sanford Stadium on Saturday; that's the second-longest such streak in league history (Alabama won 57 straight at Bryant-Denny Stadium from 1963-82).

Just as impressive, Smart's teams are 32-5 against longtime rivals Auburn (9-1), Florida (7-2), Georgia Tech (7-1) and Tennessee (9-1).

"I don't think you could have written it for him, a better story for him to come back to his alma mater and have a chance to win national championships, plural," said Smart's wife, Mary Beth, a former basketball player at Georgia. "College football in 10 years has changed dramatically, and he still loves it, still has that competitive drive. He loves the players. I think they keep him young just like our kids do."

Smart says the transfer portal, NIL and revenue sharing forced him to become more of a CEO the past few seasons. While he might have spent hours analyzing film and developing game plans with his assistants in the past, he's now more focused on roster management, player retention, recruiting and fundraising, while delegating more responsibility to his assistant coaches and support staff.

"In my first few years, I tried to do everything and be involved in everything and know every decision," Smart said. "I probably handcuffed staff members from doing their own job. I grew in that, so delegating duties is probably my biggest change."

Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann is the only on-field assistant who has worked for Smart during his entire 10-year tenure. Schumann was also with him at Alabama, where Smart worked as Saban's assistant head coach and defensive coordinator from 2007 to 2015.

They helped the Crimson Tide win four national titles. Not surprisingly, Smart initially tried to duplicate what Saban built at Alabama before putting his own imprint on the Georgia program.

"That's probably the most impressive part because he's managed to keep the stuff that made a difference over there [at Alabama] in terms of the standard that's held, the level of accountability, the toughness and the workmanlike nature," Schumann said. "He's managed to keep all that while adding his own flavor."

IN 1519, SPANISH explorer Hernán Cortés sank his ships to prevent his men from retreating when they invaded the Aztec empire, coining the phrase: "Burn the boats."

Sports psychologist Drew Brannon, who has worked with Smart's program since 2018, introduced that phrase to the Bulldogs the day before they played Alabama in the CFP National Championship game in Indianapolis on Jan. 10, 2022 -- a game Georgia would win for its first national title in 41 years. About five weeks earlier, the Crimson Tide had rolled past the Bulldogs 41-24 in the SEC title game, handing them their first loss of the season.

It was Brannon's way of telling the Bulldogs there was no turning back and total commitment was needed to beat the Crimson Tide.

During Georgia's rise under Smart -- from 8-5 during his first season of 2016 to back-to-back national titles -- Alabama has often been a thorn in Georgia's side. In 2017, the Bulldogs knocked off Oklahoma 54-48 in two overtimes in a CFP semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game, but then blew a 13-point lead against Alabama in the CFP National Championship game. Tua Tagovailoa's 41-yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith on a second-and-26 play in overtime haunts Georgia fans to this day.

The Crimson Tide delivered Georgia more heartache during a 35-28 loss in the 2018 SEC championship game. Jalen Hurts came off the bench to bring the Tide back from a 14-point deficit in the second half.

After the Bulldogs went 8-2 during the abbreviated 2020 season, which was played during the COVID-19 pandemic, Smart realized he was going to have to evolve as a coach if his program was going to reach new heights.

Bringing in Brannon's sports psychology and leadership development company, Amplos, was one of the most important steps in Georgia's transformation under Smart. Brannon and his team conduct weekly skull sessions with players during the offseason, in which they'll share details of their life stories with teammates, work on handling pressure on the road and learn new skills to focus in games.

"He's become more well-rounded as a coach," Brannon said. "I think some of his edges have gotten kind of rounded off, but not in a negative way."

Last year, Brannon introduced the idea of muditā during a retreat for Georgia's team leaders. Muditā is a Sanskrit word for finding joy in the success of others. Brannon discovered the concept while reading the book "Help the Helper," by John Eliot and Kevin Pritchard. Brannon found it ironic that there's no known English translation for muditā, a fact that seemed fitting to him, since Americans tend to find joy in their own success.

"That's the word," defensive lineman Christen Miller said. "If you can't find joy in your brother winning, then do you truly love him or are you a hater? That's why when we're in long games and tough games, we come out victorious most times because we're so connected. I know what my brother's fighting for. I know what he's going through. I know where he came from. I know his story."

Brannon's message to Georgia's players: "You don't fight because you hate the guy across from you. You fight because you love the guy next to you."

"Your ability to love the guy next to you hinges on the degree to which you know him," Brannon said.

Muditā had a prominent place on Georgia's SEC championship rings from the 2024 season.

SUCCESSFULLY FOSTERING THE idea of muditā in a college football locker room is more of a challenge in the era of name, image and likeness. The House vs. NCAA settlement, finalized in June, allows athletic departments to pay student-athletes as much as $20.5 million in revenue sharing starting this year -- in addition to NIL deals they get on their own.

NIL has dramatically changed the way teams recruit high school players, although the Bulldogs certainly haven't been hurting in that area. Georgia's classes were ranked in the top three in the FBS in each of the previous nine years, according to ESPN Recruiting, including No. 1 classes in 2018 and 2024.

Under Smart, the Bulldogs have signed 170 prospects in the ESPN 300, the most by any head coach during a 10-year period, and their 22 five-star recruits are second only to Alabama (24), according to data from ESPN Research.

That doesn't mean Georgia is getting every recruit it wants. The Bulldogs recently lost out on a pair of local five-star prospects to Texas: defensive tackle Justus Terry of Manchester, Georgia, in this past recruiting cycle and five-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson of Grayson, Georgia, in the 2026 class.

On Aug. 7, Texas Tech landed linebacker LaDamion Guyton of Savannah, Georgia, the No. 5 prospect in the 2027 ESPN 300, after reportedly offering him a lucrative NIL deal.

"I love the relationships," Smart said of recruiting. "I can't say that I love having a relationship until the finish line and then it becomes a transaction. That makes it hard. Before you got attached to someone and you lost them to somebody else, maybe because of a better relationship or some other reason. It's hard when you get to the end now, and you think you've got the better relationship and you lose somebody to something else. [NIL is] just an outside element that you don't control.

"I don't fault the kid for that. I just think it's the way it is, so you can't lose sleep when a kid makes the decision based on that because who can blame them?"

Finding ways to motivate players during the NIL era has also required a significant adjustment. In Smart's words, it's not as much about a "distraction of cash" as a "distraction of access."

"In the past, I felt like there was a group of kids that were so hungry and so hell-bent to make it to the National Football League, they would do anything you said," Smart said. "They would work so hard. They were so hungry, and they had focus. You're starting to see a little bit less focus to make it there because they have a huge distraction, I would call it.

"I can fly to Miami this weekend. I can do this. I can do that. I can go buy this extra car. I can live extravagantly, which human nature is to relax when you've made good money and access. You're seeing kids that probably four or five years ago would have been first-, second-round picks not turn out to be picks at all, and it's just sad."

Smart has also dealt with a string of high-speed driving incidents involving his players that has plagued his program in recent years. Following the team's national championship celebration on Jan. 15, 2023, offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in the wreck that occurred while LeCroy and defensive tackle Jalen Carter were racing near campus.

An ESPN report in June 2023 found 60 additional moving violations -- including speeding, distracted and reckless driving, and disobeying traffic signs -- since the beginning of the 2021 academic year. In March, receiver Nitro Tuggle was arrested for driving 107 mph, and offensive lineman Marques Easley was arrested after wrecking his Dodge Charger into a power distribution box and other cars at an apartment complex.

Smart indefinitely suspended both players, who later transferred to Purdue. Smart never indicated whether they were dismissed from the team.

BRANNON, WHOSE FIRM also works with football programs at Clemson and Oregon as well as CEOs in various industries, said Smart's greatest attributes as a leader are his organizational skills, knowledge of the game and ability to develop relationships.

"It's just super unique to have all three of those," Brannon said. "It's really rare. Typically, the person who's a really good technician at something isn't very relational, or the people that are really kind of gregarious and relational, they're not a technician. They're vice versa, and for each of those."

Brannon said Smart also has a unique ability to anticipate changes and adapt accordingly, which has been invaluable during rapidly shifting times in the sport.

"I think he would be the first to tell you that when he first showed up, it was like he's a hammer and everything's a nail, and we're going to go hard every day," Brannon said. "We haven't lost our edge from a toughness standpoint, but I've just seen him develop so much in the sense of how he thinks about player development, how he thinks about taking care of players, the way he thinks about culture."

Schumann also senses a "little bit of looseness" in his boss in their 10th season at Georgia.

"Looseness can be a bad word," Schumann said. "I'm not saying that he's any less focused or committed. He's obviously still who he is, but I think that he lets people connect and lean into each other more than ever before, and he wants this to be a place that people enjoy being at."

That doesn't mean Smart is any less demanding. Just ask the people who stroll by Georgia's practice fields during the week.

Smart started using a microphone to shout instructions to players in order to keep practices as organized as possible -- and to save his voice for Saturdays. Over the years, many Georgia players probably felt like Siri was screaming at them with a southern drawl and zero patience, especially for loafing or poor footwork.

"I'd have had a lot of mic moments as a player, that's for sure," Smart said.

Everyone at practice is a potential target, including staff members and boosters who are in the way on the sideline. Smart doesn't hit his dimmer switch when recruits are watching, either. He wants them to see exactly how they're going to be coached if they sign with the Bulldogs.

"Kids come and watch practices, and he doesn't hide himself," Schumann said. "He's on the mic, and I mean he's ripping into coaches and players. Most of the kids that come here, they leave that practice and they're like, 'Man, I loved it. I loved it. I can't wait until he gets me on the mic.' No, you don't. Nobody does. But at the same time, they seek this out because they know he's going to make you a better player."

Smart has mastered the balance between blistering a player publicly and coaching him privately. Receiver London Humphreys was surprised Smart didn't scream at him for losing a fumble in a 28-6 win against FCS program Austin Peay on Sept. 13.

The next week, Humphreys caught a 28-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play with about 2½ minutes left at Tennessee. The Bulldogs tied the score on a 2-point conversion and defeated the Volunteers 44-41 in overtime. According to Smart, Humphreys is "too nice" to chew out.

"I saw [Saban] do a great job establishing a relationship with each player so that he could do that," Smart said. "And I'm not stepping over a fine line or crossing a line until I know that the kid knows that I care about him, I want him to do well, I want him to be successful. The more that I know they know that, the harder I can push them."

Center Drew Bobo, who was a 2-year-old ringbearer in Smart's wedding in 2006, said his friends get a laugh when they hear the Georgia coach screaming at him while they're walking to class. Smart and Bobo's father, Mike, were teammates at Georgia; Mike Bobo is now the Bulldogs' offensive coordinator.

"He is as authentic of a human as I've ever met," Mary Beth Smart said. "You don't have to worry. You don't have to wonder where you stand. You also know if he says something, he means it. He doesn't give a compliment if he doesn't mean it. There's no pretenses and no sugarcoating things."

Smart spent 10 seasons working with Saban at LSU and Alabama, as well as one as the Miami Dolphins' safeties coach in 2006. Saban was 72 when he retired from coaching in January 2024 after winning seven national titles, including six at Alabama.

Will Smart be on the sideline for that long?

"[Saban] was wired to where he could do that and he could probably still do it now," Smart said. "I have so many things I want to do, so many things that I want to experience and enjoy that I haven't gotten an opportunity to do because of the grind and the climb that I don't see going that long. But health permitting, I'm going to be doing something."