Even though they’re coaching rivals now, as Georgia and South Carolina are scheduled to play on Nov. 28, Georgia coach Kirby Smart has a personal connection with both Mike Bobo and Will Muschamp, who were involved in a coaching shakeup on Sunday.

Bobo is now the interim coach of the Gamecocks after Muschamp was fired.

Smart was teammates with Bobo at Georgia in the 1990s, and he later coached with Muschamp at Valdosta State. Smart and Muschamp used to needle one another in the media about their pickup basketball games at Valdosta.

Smart and Muschamp met at Georgia in 1994, when they were both safeties. Muschamp was a senior co-captain and Smart was a freshman who was redshirting. Muschamp tried to help Smart learn the safety position, and they’ve had similar paths in coaching, and previously faced off against each other as dueling defensive coordinators at Alabama and Auburn.

Smart was asked about the coaching shakeup.

“It’s a part of our business, they both know that and understand that,” Smart said at his Monday press conference. “I respect both of them as coaches and as friends, and they know as well as I do when you get in this profession that’s a possibility that that happens. It’s not for me to decide, I’m worried about Mississippi State.”