Alabama's Smart, Texas' Muschamp ‘two peas in a pod'

Kirby Smart would tell his Alabama players he had some film of his playing days at Georgia he wanted them to watch. They would roll their eyes, and stick the needle in their defensive coordinator telling him they didn’t like to watch grainy, black-and-white and pictures from the olden days. They would poke at him about being a white safety, how he looked too short for big-time football in the SEC, and asked how he ever managed to keep up.

Then one day Smart collared cornerback Javier Arenas and dragged him into his office and made him sit and watch some film.

“Javier came out of there and told us all Coach Smart could play,” said linebacker Cory Reamer. “Coach was a hitter.”

When Will Muschamp gets Texas’ players into his office, the Longhorns have to only ask about the 17-inch steel rod on his desk to understand his story and how Muschamp had to play with the same fierceness as Smart. Muschamp’s leg snapped in a baseball game his junior year at the Darlington School in Rome, and the rod was put in his leg to help it heal.

Muschamp, the defensive coordinator at Texas, hobbled around the football field his high school senior season, then watched scholarship offers disappear because he was damaged goods. He went to Georgia as a walk-on but ended up a scholarship defensive back and co-captain for the Bulldogs.

“Two peas in a pod,” said former Georgia coach Ray Goff, who coached both Smart and Muschamp. “Both of them were overachievers, intelligent, and like sponges when it came to learning the game. They played hard.

“There’s not a whole lot of difference between them.”

In one of the season’s great ironies, Georgia is hunting for a defensive coordinator to replace Willie Martinez and two of its former players will be running the respective defenses in Thursday’s national championship game: Smart for No. 1 Alabama, Muschamp for No. 2 Texas.

Smart, 34, played at Georgia from 1995-98. Muschamp, 38, played at Georgia from 1991-94. Their careers overlapped at Georgia in 1994, a season in which Smart redshirted. They coached at Valdosta State together, then LSU. They talk often and are close friends, except for the last few weeks of the regular season when they stopped calling each other as the collision between Alabama and Texas became more likely.

Besides the fact that Smart and Muschamp played at Georgia, there is one striking similarity between the two. They have learned a thing or two from Nick Saban, arguably the best defensive coach in college football. Working for Saban is rumored to be a flogging like no other in coaching, but neither complains.

“I owe him a lot,” Mushamp said in a telephone interview about Saban.

Smart, won the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in the country, and he raises hosannas to Saban, as well.

What both have learned is to be edgy and aggressive, yet solid on defense. Saban teaches a complex blitz system and physical tactics out of a 3-4 look.

“Will worked for him, Dom Capers worked for him, a lot of guys, Coach [Kevin] Steele, and nobody has ever really felt that way,” Smart said when asked if Saban was overbearing. “He's very involved, but he's passionate about the game, and his passion carries over to the players. I wouldn't want it any other way. It's like having an extra coach. So if you can get an extra coach to help your side of the ball, why wouldn't you use it?”

Muschamp and Smart not only played for Georgia and worked for Saban, they both dive into their jobs. Reamer said Smart is always on his toes at practice pushing, and creating an upbeat atmosphere.

“He’s always got something up his sleeve,” Reamer said. “He keeps our defense motivated on the days we don’t want to be out there. We always pick on each other. He’ll get involved in that and stir up some laughs. When you’ve got to spend that much time with each other, it would be hard to play for somebody who never changes expression.”

Muschamp, according to Texas coach Mack Brown, does his share of hopping around at practice and pushing the right buttons.