Kirby Smart candidly recalls last memory of Sanford Stadium as a player, a loss to Georgia Tech
By Keith Farner
Published:
It doesn’t take much for Kirby Smart to get motivated to play Georgia Tech. All the Georgia coach has to do is remember his last game in Sanford Stadium as a player. It was a loss to Tech, 21-19, in 1998.
“The memory I have is probably the worst,” Smart said at his regular Monday press conference after a reporter noted he went 3-1 against the Yellow Jackets from 1995-98. “It’s like what you always do, you don’t remember the positives sometimes, you remember the bad. … Lost on a game-winning field goal with Joe Hamilton’s drives, that was last memory of Sanford Stadium. Thank God I got into coaching, so I got to fix that. Otherwise, that would’ve been the last time I was in there.”
Smart noted that it’s difficult to pinpoint a rivalry pecking order because the Bulldogs have so many rivals.
“When I was a student here this was one of the biggest rivalries,” he said. “It was ingrained in you to have the hate. … There are none more important than the others.”
As Georgia continues to schedule more high-profile Power 5 programs, Smart was asked if that might change this rivalry.
“I think this is one of the most traditional rivalries in all of college football,” he said. “I do not think the future scheduling will change the geography of their campus and ours. There will always be interstate rivalries.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
