The football ties that bind Nick Saban and Kirby Smart extend back decades into the past. One early encounter between the two once led to Saban chewing out his entire LSU staff.
Several of Saban’s former assistant coaches — including Smart — recently spoke to ESPN’s Chris Low and Harry Lyles Jr. about some of their best memories involving Saban.
Smart detailed how his first ever interview with Saban during the latter’s LSU days became one the Georgia coach would never forget.
Smart, then a graduate assistant at Florida State, was set to interview for the position of LSU defensive backs coach in early 2004. He got on Saban’s radar thanks to a recommendation from LSU’s then-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who happened to be a friend of Smart.
Lance Thompson, a departing LSU staff member at the time, told Smart in passing before the interview: “Working for Nick is like dog years. Every year feels like seven.”
Thompson’s words had stuck with Smart perhaps a little too much. The young Smart accidentally parroted Thompson’s words during the interview held at Saban’s house during Super Bowl Sunday.
“I was comfortable and feeling good about the way it was going, and I just say, ‘I don’t get it. People say working here is like dog years.’ I don’t know why in the hell I said that. Just dumb,” Smart told ESPN. “Think about it. Why would you ever say something like that to an employer you’re trying to get a job with? But I did. I guess I wasn’t overwhelmed or intimidated. I was too young to know any better.”
Smart learned from his friend Muschamp that Saban apparently went off on his staff the next day.
“Which one of you dumba—s said it’s like dog years working for me? We’re trying to hire the guy, and you tell him that?” Saban had said to his staff, according to Muschamp.
Thankfully for Smart, Saban still hired him despite the slip-up.
Smart coached defensive backs for LSU in 2004 and then joined Saban’s staff with the Miami Dolphins in 2006. After Saban took the Alabama job in 2007, Smart joined the Crimson Tide staff that year. Smart was promoted to defensive coordinator and served in that role for Alabama from 2008-2015 before leaving to take the Georgia head coach job.
You can read more stories on Saban from the ESPN piece found here.
