Kirby Smart enduring a ‘time management challenge’

Since being announced at Georgia on December 6, Smart has had to balance recruiting new players to Georgia while keeping his promises to the players he convinced to don the crimson and white.

To outsiders, Smart’s decision might be insane, but Alabama players expected him to stay because the job wasn’t finished yet.

“Me and my mom look at each other, like, ‘Are you serious?'” Cook recalled. Can you run the option?’ And I’m like, ‘No! “I’m recruiting for the University of Georgia”.

Still, Smart made clear that even though he, Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher and Florida’s Jim McElwain are branches of the Saban coaching tree who must recruit against their former boss, the former coordinators can differentiate themselves even though their programs are structured similarly to Saban’s. The uncertainty unnerved them earlier in the season when they found it hard to get in sync when they’re being replaced after one or two series, but they are used to it now, while pulling for whomever is carrying the ball.

But he had the itch to coach and in 2000 signed on to be an assistant at Valdosta State for a mere $10,000 and access to a Nissan Altima. “I’ve got a special relationship with these guys”, Smart said. But I still got these letters week after week.

“(I think about it) every day, especially now.

Smart has people to count the dollars now.

Smart has willingly accepted less sleep and family time to finish out the season with Alabama after becoming Georgia’s head coach.

“One day at a time, brother”.

“Somebody has to set the tempo in practice and at the game, ” Reed said. His father was a long-time high school coach. Although, the coaching staff isn’t going to cop to the last factor.

“I really don’t see a whole lot of vulnerability [on Alabama’s defense]”, said Cook, “but occasionally they’ll get beat deep in the passing game”. But somewhere along the way he changed his mind.

“He’s fast, he runs good routes, he’s going to get the ball, he can break tackles if you don’t wrap him up”, Alabama safety Eddie Jackson said. He would replace an LSU coach, Gerry DiNardo, who had gone 32-24-1, if 3-8 in 1999.

“No, to be honest”, linebacker Reggie Ragland said.

He is the coach’s son. The Rivals.com database lists 17 uncommitted players in the class of ’16 with offers from and high interest in Alabama and Georgia. He exuded those rare organizational skills at an age when most kids were bouncing off walls with sugar rushes.

Having some down time and almost a month between games was a huge benefit for the star senior.

“I did not see him coming, but it’s like I seen him coming because I went right up over him”, Scott said.

“We’ve lost two years, right?” “But he passed me by in about two years”. Saban, who is no blowhard, dipped into his good reservoir of humility and said of Dantonio, “He’s certainly done a better job at Michigan State than I ever could do, so he’s done really well”.

The father agrees. Kirby Smart knew when to go, where to go, who to work for. Nick Saban will undoubtedly be reminding his team of that this year to ensure that they are properly motivated to redeem themselves for falling short of the title game last season. Head coach Mark Dantonio often is the one acting as the manager, signaling to Warner who he wants out of the bullpen.

Michigan State ranks ninth in the country in rushing yards allowed per game at 113.1 and 22nd in yards per carry at 3.55. “When you’re out there, you’re just playing and when it happened, it was all cool and then a couple days later, they’re still talking about the 22-play drive”. Of course, the five Heisman victors before that all came out on top in their bowl games, but we’ll choose to ignore that fact for now.