Familiar enemies, ‘various people’: Kiffin, Smart square off for very first

• Chris Low, ESPN

  • Senior WriterNov 10, 2023, 07:00 AM ET Close College football reporter Joined ESPN.com in 2007
  • Graduate of the University of Tennessee

As he sat next to Kirby Smart in the many personnel meetings led by Nick Saban at Alabama in 2015, Lane Kiffin never truly thought about all the training skill in the room.

“No, not truly. I just knew that you better be on top of your game every day or you were going to hear about it from Coach [Saban],” Kiffin said. “We all did. Nobody was spared. Didn’t matter if you were an organizer or a [graduate assistant]”

The Crimson Tide won the championship game that season, and 13 team member– including analysts, personnel/player development directors and graduate assistants– went on to be Power 5 head coaches or coordinators. 3 others would become NFL assistants, while another position coach, Bobby Williams, had actually previously been head coach at Michigan State.Saban informed ESPN in 2015 that it was as total, and yet as varied, a personnel as he’s had in terms of coaches with different backgrounds, ages and state of minds.”But that’s what you want, guys

who are driven and have what it takes to be a head coach, but also guys who have the ability to coach and obstacle each other in that moment,” Saban said.”We had a great deal of those guys on that staff.”On Saturday, 2 of the focal points of that famous personnel will satisfy for the very first time as head coaches when Smart’s No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs handle Kiffin’s No. 9 Ole Miss Rebels at Sanford Arena(7 p.m. ET, ESPN ). It’s the first top-10 match this season in the SEC and the very first top-10 match in between the Bulldogs and Rebels.Smart and Kiffin aren’t precisely phone buddies(or text pals ), but Smart said this week he has a great deal of regard for his Ole Miss equivalent.”He was a head coach at a truly young age,”Smart said.”He taught me a lot of features of what he thinks in being a head coach and doing it your method. He’s definitely had a distinct experience in regards to the locations he’s had the ability to work as a head coach, and he draws on that. There are times we share concepts or GPS numbers or whatever, however there’s absolutely nothing outside of just an actually good relationship and regard. ” While Lane Kiffin acknowledges the competitiveness he shows Kirby Smart, Kiffin says they’re”very various individuals.”John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports Where Smart and Kiffin are most alike is their strong competitiveness, but that’s about where the similarities end.” I believe the majority of people who truly understand us, the people who sat in those rooms with us, would inform you that we’re always looking for methods to beat the other guy somehow and win

,” Kiffin said.”That’s how we’re wired. But they ‘d likewise tell you that we’re extremely various individuals. “Kiffin jokes that he was different from practically everyone on the 2015 staff. He stated Saban had the coaches on that staff take a judgment index test.”I would call it a character test, sort of measuring how

you believe, your imaginative side, your structure side, and I remember meeting with the girl who administered it,”Kiffin stated.”My rating was a lot different than Kirby’s, a lot various than everybody’s, truly.”There were eight coaches whose scores were pretty comparable and over here on one side of the scale, and then my test was way over here.”Kiffin is known as somebody to do things his own method, but as he thinks back, he stated there’s no question the members of that staff

learned from each other and even leaned on each other at times.Editor’s Picks 2 Related “Everybody understands about what we call the infield, the 9 assistant coaches, and how you have actually got all these head coaches other locations out of that, “Kiffin stated.”However you don’t really consider all the outfield coaches, as we called them, that existed at that same time. That’s what really makes it remarkable

.”Two of those outfield coaches will be important parts of Saturday’s showdown. Georgia protective planner Glenn Schumann and Ole Miss offensive organizer Charlie Weis Jr., then in their early to mid-20s, were just getting their training professions started in 2015. Schumann was among the Tide’s directors of football player advancement and Weis was a protective analyst.Weis said Schumann taught him the Alabama defense, and they’ve stayed close because moving on in the coaching world. Both are the main playcallers for their systems and both have had opportunities to go somewhere else. Schumann spoke with for the protective organizer’s job with the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, however selected to stay at Georgia. Weis was pursued by a number of Power 5 groups to be their offensive planner, but got a substantial raise( going from$800,000 to$ 1.4 million) and remained at Ole Miss.Schumann and Weis were just 2 of the budding stars on that personnel. Others consisted of Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who was a graduate assistant.Kiffin downplayed the idea that he and Smart have detailed knowledge of each other’s training tendencies because of their short time together at Alabama. They were also the Tide’s coordinators in 2014. Allstate Playoff Predictor How will Saturday’s top games affect the College Football Playoff chase after? What are the existing odds for the

leading four? The Allstate Playoff Predictor has the answers. Check back every week as the chances are upgraded following that week’s games.”I believe that’s type of more of a made-for-TV thing,” Kiffin said.”We broke each other

at Alabama, but you got to

remember: Coach Saban structures the defense, Kirby calls it. So when you go scrimmage, you get the same calls. The entire year is so planned out that method that I do not think you truly discover a lot about the playcaller there like you would another location.

“Now, we talked about football and traded concepts. However it’s not like when it’s third-and-6, I understand he’s going to run this blitz or something like that.”Alex Mortensen, in his first season as UAB’s offending organizer, was a key behind-the-scenes figure for three of Alabama’s championship game teams and was a graduate assistant on the 2015 personnel. He stated the talent on

that team– 17 Tide players were picked in the 2016 and 2017 NFL drafts– combined with the coaching acumen created an ultra-competitive practice environment.”

It wasn’t Lane versus Kirby every day and the 2 coordinators trying to outwit each other,”Mortensen said.”Do not get me wrong. I’m not stating there wasn’t a few of that, however not as much as people would expect. Coach Saban always talked about the object of practice was not to win the drill, however installing the things you needed to set up for the benefit of the group.” Another caveat for Saturday’s game, as Kiffin notes, is that neither he nor Smart calls the plays now, although both are heavily involved.Moreover, Smart said Kiffin has evolved significantly as a playcaller.”He’s not the same state of mind he was 10-15 years ago. He’s altered,”Smart said.”He hasn’t constantly been an up-tempo guy. He’s coached in the NFL, USC, Tennessee and Alabama. He’s had different run plans. With tempo, he’s more

devoted to the run and being physical. … You mistake Ole Miss if you think they’re a pass-first group.” Kirby Smart said Lane Kiffin”taught me a lot of aspects of what he believes in being a head coach and doing it your way. “Todd Kirkland/Getty Images Saban’s influence is apparent at both Georgia and Ole Miss, maybe more so at Georgia. However Kiffin said he and Smart run their programs very in a different way, mostly since of the emergence of NIL and the transfer portal.Plus, Ole Miss is never ever going to recruit the high school ranks at the very same level as Georgia.”Take it for what it’s worth, however you have to construct your program at Ole Miss– the method you do some things like using the website or running an unusual offensive system– differently than you need to

do at Georgia,”Kiffin said.”So I think they are different tasks in that way.”What’s not different is that Smart and Kiffin have actually steered their programs to heights they had not reached in decades, if ever.Georgia(9-0, 6-0 in the SEC)has actually won 26 straight

games and is looking to become the first string because Minnesota from 1934 to 1936 to win three

straight national championships.Ole Miss (8-1, 5-1 )remains in the midst of its best three-year stretch since the John Vaught years in the early 1960s. The Rebels have actually split the national leading 10 for the 3rd straight season, the very first such streak because 1962 to 1964. They likewise have an opportunity to win

10 games in the routine season for the second time in three seasons. Ole Miss had never ever had a 10-win routine season before 2021. Beating his old associate and two-time safeguarding national champion Georgia would be the greatest step yet for Kiffin and an Ole Miss program that suffered through four consecutive nonwinning

seasons before he arrived. “It used to be that you might sign an excellent class, play all freshmen and then they’re better as sophomores and actually good as juniors,”said Kiffin, who is 26-9 over the previous three seasons. “That does not happen anymore, and part of that is since no one lingers that long. You get fired. “So I can’t inform you this was the strategy in Year 4. I thought we ‘d be great, but the method you get here has actually altered. We’ve recruited out of the portal actually well and after that fit them into a culture. That part gets missed out on.” You can’t just generate excellent players. Take a look at the NBA. Groups sign these terrific totally free agents and then they sink as soon as things spoil due to the fact that they have a bad culture fit. I’m really happy with our personnel and players and the way they’ve jelled together. It’s difficult.”