Kirby Smart has hired a new coach in Athens but this won’t be the first time Georgia’s coach has worked with this particular assistant.

Georgia has added former Navy defensive backs coach Dan O’Brien to the program’s coaching roster in Athens as a quality control assistant on the defensive side of the ball. Before arriving in Athens, O’Brien served five seasons at the Naval Academy, where he most recently coach safeties.

Before landing a job at Navy, O’Brien coached at Elon, where he was the defensive backs coach for three seasons. How did he get the job at Elon? He landed that job after serving four seasons as a defensive analyst and defensive graduate assistant at Alabama under defensive coordinator Kirby Smart.

O’Brien also has scouting experience with the New England Patriots and has family ties to coaching as his father Tom previously served as head coach at Boston College and North Carolina State.

Considering his experience working under Smart, it won’t be a surprise to see O’Brien work his way up the coaching ladder in Athens and one day earn a role on the full-time 10-man coaching staff at Georgia.