Why Georgia's Kirby Smart Shares Close Bond With Texas Longhorns Coach Steve Sarkisian

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian faces a close friend for the first time.

Jan 9, 2023; Inglewood, CA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart runs off the field after winning the CFP national championship game against the TCU Horned Frogs at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

When the Texas Longhorns hired Steve Sarkisian as their head coach after the 2020 season, the hope was that he could bring them back to prominence at long last. Now in his fourth season at the helm, he's certainly done just that.

Sarkisian's teams have steadily improved each year, and he even led Texas to its first College Football Playoff appearance last season. This season marks the Longhorns' first in the SEC, and Sarkisian has them off to a 6-0 start and their first No. 1 ranking in 15 years. It's been a long and arduous road back to the top, but the Longhorns are finally there.

Of course, all of this is before they face their first major test in SEC play against the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday night. Kirby Smart's team needs no introduction, as the Bulldogs won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022 and boast a 47-3 record over the past four seasons, with all of those losses coming to Alabama. The Longhorns may be a slight favorite in this game, but between two national championship contenders, it's anyone's game.

It's easy to forget in the heat of the game, but Sarkisian and Smart are actually good friends off the field. Leading up to the highly-anticipated matchup, Smart explained the close bond the two coaches share.

"Well, we have things in common," Smart told reporters Tuesday. "You know, both worked for Nick [Saban] and had a mutual friendship there, had a mutual friendship through Lane [Kiffin] ... But he's just a bright mind, he's fun to be around, competitor. We have a lot in common in terms of that and I've enjoyed the time I've got to spend around him."

Smart knows as well as anyone in the game today what it takes to build a championship team, and from his perspective, this Longhorns squad has all the makings of one.

"Well, I think when you look for a team, you look for weakness," Smart said. "You know, you look for areas that you can maybe take advantage of. And when you look across the board to the kicking game, the passing game, the run game, the fundamentally sound, complementary football, force turnovers, don't turn the ball over. The things that you can eliminate for beating yourself, they do a great job of all that, and that's why they're undefeated. That's why they were in the playoff last year and that's why they're ranked No. 1 right now in the country."

While Sarkisian and Smart may be great friends, they obviously won't hold back once kickoff rolls around at 6:30 p.m. CT.