It’s safe to say Kirby Smart knows what kind of environment his Georgia team is walking into this weekend.

As both a player for the Bulldogs in 1998 and several times throughout his tenure as a defensive assistant at Alabama, Smart has experienced the hostile environment LSU fans cook up on fall Saturdays. But Smart has a tremendous amount of respect for the atmosphere around Death Valley, which he expressed during his Monday press conference.

“We move onto LSU, going to an extremely tough environment to play in, one that I’ve both experienced as a player and a lot of times as a coach. They have an incredible environment. Their fanbase is really second to none in their atmosphere they create from the time you pull in on the buses to play in the stadium. It’s an awesome opportunity for our team to play on a national stage. It’s an opportunity for a lot of our guys to play in a venue that a lot of Georgia players never got a chance to play in and some in the future won’t get an opportunity to play in. So that part is good.”

Tiger Stadium is sure to be especially rowdy this weekend as No. 13 LSU (5-1, 2-1 SEC) welcomes the No. 2 Bulldogs (6-0, 4-0) for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday.

Don’t expect Tiger fans to ease up on Smart just because he paid them a compliment.