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Muschamp, Smart share stories of bond forged during time together at Georgia
By Nick Cole
Published:
Will Muschamp and Kirby Smart are now on opposing sides of a bitter SEC East rivalry.
But things haven’t always been that way for the former Georgia teammates.
Muschamp, who took the South Carolina job a couple month back, has long had a strong relationship and admiration for Smart, who is now the coach at their Alma mater.
In a well-written piece by ESPN’s Greg Ostendorf, Muschamp recalled a funny story about Smart in the infancy of his coaching career.
Muschamp had just landed his first defensive coordinator gig at Valdosta State, and he told his new head coach that he wanted to hire Smart as his secondary coach.
When Smart showed up for the interview with both Muschamp and head coach Chris Hatcher in attendance, his nervousness created a funny story that still gets laughs today.
“During the interview — and this is a true story — he drew up 12 guys on defense,” Muschamp said. “I said, ‘If we can play with 12 on defense, we’re going to be pretty good.’ I told him this ain’t Canada. But that did happen.”
Smart landed the job anyway. It paid $8,000, by the way.
The relationship goes back even further than that moment, all the way to their playing days at Georgia.
Muschamp was a senior captain on the team when Smart just arrived as a freshman.
Smart recalled Muschamp’s words of encouragement to an unsure youngster:
“One of my best memories [of Muschamp] was sitting in the locker room as a freshman,” Smart said. “He was a senior, he was a starter, he was a player, he was a leader, he was a captain. He had been there five years, a walk-on who had earned a scholarship. Here I am, a freshman scholarship player and I was sitting in the locker room after a scrimmage just shaking my head. I was like, ‘Man, will I ever play here? I don’t know if I’ll ever play here.’
“He just kind of laughed and said, ‘Stay the course. You’ll be fine.’ Because he’d been through it. At the time, I didn’t think I would ever play. I was just overwhelmed. And of course, I ended up playing my next year.'”
Turns out Muschamp was right, as Smart turned into an All-SEC player by the time he was done at Georgia. And eventually, both turned into one of the conference’s most elite defensive minds.
Keep these stories in mind when you watch the Bulldogs and Gamecocks clash this fall, as Muschamp and Smart will look across the field and see more than just an opposing head coach.
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
