KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Kirby Smart respects all opponents and road games, but he acknowledges Neyland Stadium is “special.”

“It was hostile in Missouri, it’s hostile when you go to Baton Rouge and Auburn, but Neyland does have a special feel to it in terms of the atmosphere they create,” Smart said on his coaches’ show on Thursday night.

“The checkerboard they create, the amount of people they have in the seats, man, it’s unbelievable.”

Smart, himself, never won a game as a player in Neyland Stadium or against Tennessee for that matter, adding a bit more spice to the annually rivalry game that will play out at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday (TV: CBS).

Smart was an All-SEC safety and team captain who played at Georgia from 1995-98, and two of his coordinators also play for the Bulldogs during the era Tennessee was dominant.

Co-defensive coordinator and former UGA safety Will Muschamp (1991-94) and offensive coordinator and former UGA quarterback Mike Bobo (1993-97) also endured annual losses to the Vols, who won every game in the series from 1989-1999.

Kirby’s recruitment

Tennessee played a role in Kirby Smart’s recruitment, but it wasn’t because the Vols offered him a scholarship or tried to get him to play in Knoxville.

Instead, Smart said, it was because former McEachern (Power Springs, Ga.) star cornerback Steve Johnson flipped from Georgia to Tennessee on signing day, opening up the scholarship for Smart.

Former coach Ray Goff told Smart he would have found him another scholarship anyway, but the UGA head coach likes to say that flip opened the door for him.

As for Tennessee, Smart, who played at Bainbridge, High School has his thoughts.

“I was not good enough for Tennessee, they were rolling when I came out of high school,” Smart said. “I was a long way from Tennessee. I didn’t consider them, and they didn’t consider me, so the feelings were mutual.”

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Current rivalries

Smart said every week rivalries get brought up, and to him they are based on the location of the schools around Georgia.

“If you draw a line around our state, the five states that touch us, that we are contiguous with are unique,” Smart said.

“So the Ladd McConkeys and Tate Ratledges of the world, this is their big rivalry because they are North Georgia kids.”

Both McConkey and Ratledge grew up as Tennessee fans before the opportunity to play for a championship program at Georgia changed their course.

“They grew up across the state line from Tennessee, and there’s a lot of Tennessee fans in North Georgia,” Smart said.

“It’s a great rivalry, it’s a historic rivalry, it’s one that was really competitive in the 2000s, when I wasn’t here, it went back and forth a lot.”

Rising star

Georgia linebacker C.J. Allen was getting snaps every week leading up to Jamon Dumas-Johnson’s forearm injury, so it wasn’t surprising to Smart to see the freshman step up with nine tackles in his first start last week against Ole Miss.

Smart made it clear it was not a flawless performance, however, after play-by-play man Scott Howard praised Allen’s performance during the coaches’ show.

“He’s one of the reasons we didn’t get off the field on the first drive, though, we had a third and-14 and he busted the coverage,” Smart said.

“Opening drive butterflies, he made a couple of mistakes, and those things happen with freshmen.

“(But) he’s a great kid, takes notes every day, no one works harder than CJ Allen does to prepare.”