During his introductory news conference as the new Georgia coach in December 2015, Kirby Smart fielded a question from a reporter with the Athens Banner-Herald.
When did you feel like you were prepared and ready to be a head coach?
"The growth you get from working at a place like Alabama under Nick Saban helps immensely," Smart said. "A lot of people have said, 'Why not take a small school head job?' I honestly feel like my growth was better by being in a large program and being around Coach Saban."
While Saban built Alabama into a modern college football dynasty and turned the Crimson Tide into a recruiting juggernaut, Smart developed into a dogged recruiter and one of the nation's top defensive playcallers during his nine seasons in Tuscaloosa from 2007 to 2015. But as of this fall, Smart has now spent as much time in charge of the Bulldogs as he did as an assistant under Saban.
In nine seasons at Georgia, Smart has built a powerhouse of his own, amassing a record of 96-17 while matching the same ultra-elite recruiting standard set by his mentor. And for the better part of the past 10 years, up to Saban's January retirement, the sport's fiercest elite recruiting wars have been fought between Georgia and Alabama -- Smart and Saban.
Since 2017, the programs have finished more than two spots apart in ESPN's team recruiting rankings only once, combining for six No. 1 classes in that span. Now, following Saban's departure from Alabama earlier this year, Smart holds the mantle as college football's preeminent recruiter, one of only three active coaches with a national championship.
On Saturday, No. 2 Georgia visits No. 4 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium and the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide open a new era of the rivalry with first-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer on the opposite sideline. Smart stands alone as college football's premier recruiter, at least for the moment, led here by the path laid out by his mentor and the recruiting battles they fought.
"I think [my time at Alabama] made me who I am today because the demand for excellence is met by none other than [Saban]," Smart said this summer at SEC media days. "So, that standard he set for me, day in day out -- he met himself."
Across Smart's first nine recruiting cycles with Georgia, the 48-year-old coach has turned in eight top-three classes, per ESPN rankings, same as Saban at Alabama in 2007-15.
Neither Smart nor Saban needed much time to get the recruiting operation on the tracks.
After signing the nation's 17th-ranked class in 2007, Saban notched top-three classes in each of the next eight cycles, capped by four straight No. 1 classes from 2012 to 2015. Over that span, Alabama signed 16 five-star prospects, 169 four-star recruits, produced 25 eventual consensus All-Americans and 39 NFL draft selections, including 16 first-round picks.
That initial run of high-powered recruiting classes featured some of the offensive gems of Saban's early years with the Crimson Tide. But the national titles Saban delivered in 2009, 2011 and 2012 were built on defense. A key figure in Alabama's stockpiling of defensive talent in those years? Kirby Smart.
Saban's debut class in 2007 included 2009 national title game starters Rolando McClain and Kareem Jackson. In the next class, the Crimson Tide added Don'ta Hightower, Marcell Dareus, Courtney Upshaw, Mark Barron and Robert Lester. Dre Kirkpatrick and Nico Johnson arrived in the 2009 cycle, followed by Dee Milliner and C.J. Mosley in 2010.
In the latter years of the Saban era at Alabama, the Crimson Tide's overwhelming success sold itself on the recruiting trail. But when Saban began his rebuild at Alabama, he set himself apart and pulled elite talent to Tuscaloosa with his ferocious recruiting approach.
As John Talty wrote in his book "The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban: How Alabama's Coach Became the Greatest Ever," Saban told Alabama athletic Mal Moore the following shortly after his 2007 hiring: "I just want you to know you've hired a horses--- football coach. But nobody will out-recruit me."
During contact periods, Saban spent hours on the phone convincing recruits on the program he was constructing at Alabama. On the road, he wooed families and recruits with his mix of an old-school philosophy and a forward-thinking vision. On campus visits, Saban was meticulous on every detail in the team facility. Even after six national titles, Saban remained just as relentless on the trail.
At Alabama, Saban took a traditional college football power and refined a program he could sell. Smart was a key part of that operation, evolving into an elite roster manager and top recruiter under Saban. When he landed at Georgia, Smart took the same principles with him and brought a blunt, yet personable demeanor to the table as he started mining the talent-rich counties of Georgia and the surrounding states.
"My goal is to outwork everybody in recruiting," Smart told ESPN in 2016.
While Saban's initial build centered on elite defenders. Smart's earliest recruiting hits came on offense. Smart's first class at Georgia was ranked No. 7 and the following class finished No. 3.
In 2017, when Georgia met Alabama in the national championship at the end of Smart's second season, the Bulldogs were getting contributions from 2016 signees, receiver Mecole Hardman and offensive guard Solomon Kindley. From the class of 2017, Georgia leaned on freshman Jake Fromm (2,615 yards passing, 24 TD, 7 INT) under center that fall, while D'Andre Swift (81 carries, 618 rushing yards) and Andrew Thomas (15 starts at right tackle) provided their own immediate impacts.
However, Georgia's run under Smart only swung from extremely good to supernova after the Bulldogs started beating Saban to the nation's top defenders.
Alabama was in the mix for Nolan Smith, Nakobe Dean, Travon Walker, Keelee Ringo, Jalen Carter before all five defenders landed in Athens. Together, they made up the heart of the defenses that took the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022, kicked off by Georgia's 33-18 win over the Crimson Tide for the 2021 national title. It's no coincidence that of the Bulldogs' six consensus All-Americans since 2021, all but one has been a defender. Smith, Walker and Carter went on to become first-round draft picks.
Altogether, Smart's first nine years recruiting to Georgia have been nearly identical to Saban's start at Alabama. In some spots, the protege has been even better.
Compared to Saban's start from 2007 to 2015, Smart has his mentor beat on total five-star prospects (19 to 16), total four-stars (173 to 169), ESPN 300 signees (155 to 138) and NFL draft selections (52-39) across nine recruiting cycles from 2016 to 2024. Removing the 17th-ranked class Saban signed one month after he landed at Alabama, the Crimson Tide's average national class ranking over his first nine seasons was 1.75. Smart's average, without his initial seventh-ranked class, stands at 2.1.
Former Saban-era Alabama staffers Steve Sarkisian (Texas), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss), Mario Cristobal (Miami) and Dan Lanning (Oregon) have combined for 19 signing classes as head coaches since leaving Saban's staff. Over that span, the group has combined to land 11 five-star signees without a single top-three signing class, per ESPN rankings.
At Georgia, Smart has averaged 2.11 five-star signees per class and last failed to land a top-three recruiting class in 2016. While Smart dominates recruiting metrics, perhaps another one of the tools in his recruiting belt is the perspective he brings to rankings and star ratings.
"A successful signing day is defined four years from now -- I look backwards on that," he said after signing the nation's No. 2 class in the 2023 cycle. "I leave it to [the media] to rate them because I can't compare somebody else's to ours because I don't really look at somebody else's."
Smart became a head coach and matched Saban on the recruiting trail. On the field, Saban dominated his former assistant, beating Smart's Georgia teams five times in six tries from 2018 to 2024.
On Saturday, a new rivalry begins on the field when Smart returns to a familiar place with a new face manning the opposite sideline. The Bulldogs will arrive in Tuscaloosa as two-point favorites in Week 5, making the Crimson Tide a regular-season underdog for the first time since 2015.
Yet the competition between Smart and DeBoer has already started, and the rivalry will continue after Saturday regardless of outcome, certain to spill over to the recruiting trail.
DeBoer delivered a masterful start to life filling the biggest shoes in college football, closing his first summer in charge at Alabama with 15 ESPN 300 commits and ESPN's second-ranked recruiting class in the 2025 cycle. Smart's 2025 class, meanwhile, sits fifth in those rankings. The schools are considered favorites for five-star defensive tackle Justus Terry, the nation's No. 7 overall prospect, who might be in attendance Saturday. Elijah Griffin, another five-star defensive tackle, is a top priority for the Bulldogs as Smart seeks to close another top-three class in 2025.
Soon, the rivalry between Alabama and Georgia will take a new shape, molded by the direction DeBoer takes in the Crimson Tide's new era. But on Saturday, college football will witness one of the final meetings between the teams assembled by Smart and Saban, two coaches who mirrored each other and helped define the past decade of college football.
Between them over the past nine cycles, Saban and Smart signed 41 five-stars and 329 ESPN 300 prospects and landed six No. 1 classes, combining for four national championships and seven SEC titles. From campuses situated roughly 270 miles apart, they built programs in the same image, then flatly dominated the rest of major college football.
This weekend, Saban will watch not from the sideline, but in retirement. And as Smart faces a team now coached by DeBoer, he'll see the fingerprints of his old boss are still everywhere.
"Well, he recruited a lot of them," Smart said of Saban this week. "And they're good players. I think any time you go against a really good team that's a powerhouse in college football, it's a challenge."