Kirby Smart knows Georgia’s history. He’s a part of it. He was a member of the team in the 1990′s, an assistant coach in the mid-2000′s and the head coach starting in 2016.

He knew it had been 41 years since Georgia last won a national championship. He had the presence of mind to mention one of Larry Munson’s more iconic calls in the moments after defeating Alabama 33-18.

It is also why he sought out former Georgia coach and athletic director Vince Dooley on the field in the moments after the game. Dooley was the head coach of the 1980 team. His name is now on the field where Georgia plays its home games.

The connection to Dooley is also why a chance encounter Smart hard the night before seemed like a positive sign ahead of Monday’s game.

“I got off the elevator the other night and I thought it was a sign when the elevator opened on the 15th floor and Vince Dooley was sitting on a bench locked out of his room,” Smart said. “I thought, God put him there for me to see him the night before his game, and he was waiting on his key to come up to his room. I just knew that meant something.”

Related: WATCH: Voice of late Larry Munson narrates UGA championship play

Smart now joins Dooley and Wally Butts as the only championship-winning coaches in program history. But Dooley was not the only former Georgia head coach on hand in Indianapolis to see Georgia celebrate.

Mark Richt was there as well. Richt hired Smart as an assistant for the 2005 season, which happened to be the final time the former won the SEC championship as a head coach. Despite winning 145 games, Georgia had to fire Richt after a 9-3 campaign in 2015 to hire Smart.

Still, Richt has been and continues to be supportive of the GEorgia program and once again lives in Athens. He congratulated Smart in a tweet moments after Monday’s game went final. Georgia would not have been in the position it was on Monday were it not for all that Richt did in his time as the head coach.

Georgia players admitted the fact that the national championship win came against Alabama did mean just a little bit more. The Bulldogs had lost seven-straight games against Alabama. Kirby Smart was involved in all seven. The first three came as the defensive coordinator at Alabama. The more recent four came as the head coach at Georgia.

Related: Georgia National Championship win more ‘special’ because it came against Alabama

Smart knew he wasn’t playing against those past losses or the prior shortcomings against Alabama. But having more time to reflect on it on Tuesday, Smart once again showed his knowledge of Georgia history and why beating Alabama in the way that it did meant so much to so many people.

People like Nick Chubb, Roquan Smith, Richard LeCounte and the many other former Georgia players who were on the sidelines on Monday night to soak in a championship culture that they helped build get rewarded.

“They helped set a foundation. That celebration in the locker room was, first of all, special. Then getting back to the hotel, the hotel was wild and crazy at the hotel,” Smart said. “And then seeing the pictures of Athens, that really moved me to see the number of people on the streets downtown. You just don’t know the impact that it has. That part was special.”

Given his own personal history at Georgia, Smart brought it back to the coaches who helped shape his incredibly long journey to get to this point. He has a connection to the four coaches who held the big job before he did.

It’s that understanding of all the program went through, along with the Georgia players and the Georgia fans, that makes his first national title for Georgia so special for Smart.

“From Coach Dooley, seeing him after the game it’s very emotional for me to see him. And then Coach (Ray) Goff who signed me, and Coach (Jim) Donnan, who coached me, and Coach Richt who I worked for and I have a tremendous amount of respect for and he got so close so many times,” Smart said. “There’s a lot of people that it means a lot to. And I, for one, am happy for them, that so many of them are also happy for me.”

Kirby Smart discusses 2022 National Championship win

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