Did Kirby Smart play for Vince Dooley? Exploring Georgia HC's collegiate football career
Did Kirby Smart play for Vince Dooley?
No, he didn't, if we're talking about a strictly player-coach relationship.
This is because Dooley coached Georgia from 1964 to 1988, winning the school a national title in 1980. He did, however, serve as the school's athletic director until 2004, which definitely crossed over with Kirby Smart's playing days from 1995 to 1998.
Despite not playing under Dooley, however, Smart was always one to pay respects to his predecessor. The University of Georgia's Twitter page captured this iconic photo of the two coaches sharing a moment on the field after the Bulldogs won their second-straight title last year:
The caption is quite simple and straightforward, as you can see. With Smart's back-to-back national championship victories, he is likely one of (if not the) greatest head coaches ever in the program's history.
But those two championships had far more meaning for Smart than one may think.
Smart on Dooley: 'He's the reason this program is what it is today'
In a press conference shortly after Dooley passed away last year, Smart had nothing but praises for his legendary predecessor (via DawgNation):
“It meant a lot for us to win that game for them and for all that Vince has meant to our university as such an ambassador to our program and really for all of college football,” Smart said.
“So I know if he was looking down on that one he would have enjoyed the first half. I don’t know if he would have enjoyed the second one. He and Erk (Russell) probably had a laugh together about it. He’s meant so much to us. In honor of him and their family, it was special.”
Is Kirby Smart on the way to a three-peat?
Winning two straight college football titles is already an immense feat--if not almost impossible to do. Only seven schools have uncontested claims to this achievement, with Georgia obviously being one of them.
But does his team have what it takes to be the first-ever "uncontested" three-peat CFB champ? With the season on the horizon, this question will get its definitive answer. If the Bulldogs do win it, however, not only will they have immortalized themselves, they will also give Kirby Smart a chance to set several coaching records of his own.