Peyton Manning, Kirby Smart and Steve Spurrier are three of the biggest names in SEC lore. Two of them are iconic, championship-winning coaches. All three were All-SEC players in their heyday, with Spurrier winning the Heisman Trophy.
Manning, who finished runner-up for the award in 1997, shared an incredible story about meeting Smart for the first time to Ivan Maisel of On3. It happened in Gainesville, Fla., with Manning and Smart being on a recruiting trip.
Spurrier was the coach at Florida at the time. And after meeting with Smart as a recruit, we might have a better understanding of why Smart enjoys beating Florida so much.
“I remember he was so angry after his meeting,” Manning said. “I guess it was with (Steve) Spurrier because they didn’t offer him. They wanted him to walk-on. He was so mad. He and I went and drank a lot of beer.”
Smart ended up accepting a scholarship offer to play at Georgia and the rest is history. Spurrier never lost to Manning in college, though Smart’s 1997 team at Georgia did come away with a victory against the Gators. Smart never beat Manning when the two were in school, though Smart did intercept a Manning pass in the 1995 matchup.
Manning and Smart have since become friends, though the friendship might be on pause this week with Manning’s Volunteers coming to Athens as the No. 1 Volunteers visit the No. 3 Bulldogs.
Smart did make a strong recruiting push to land Manning’s nephew, Arch, who is the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2023 recruiting class. He ultimately ended up committing to play for Texas.
Georgia is coming off a win over Florida, moving Smart to 5-2 against the Gators as the head coach at Georgia. After the win, Smart made it clear he always savors a win over the rival Gators.
Now we have a little more insight into why that is the case.
“Well, it’s hard to win any series in the SEC you know, especially when you’re talking about a top program in the country,” Smart said. “I still think we should have won the year we lost here. That’s the game that probably haunts me the most is that we didn’t play worth a crap two years ago here, and if you wonder why and you worry about each individual year. You don’t worry about runs, and Billy’s going to do a great job. He already is because he’s recruiting hard, and those guys didn’t stop.”
Smart is 5-1 against Tennessee as a head coach, with the lone loss coming in Athens back in Smart’s first season on a Hail Mary. Saturday’s game is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on CBS.
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