Father health Kirby Smart

LOS ANGELES — Georgia coach Kirby Smart shared that his parents will not attend the CFP Championship Game on Monday on account of his father’s recent medical issues.

“It hurts me that he and my mom won’t be here, but I know it’s the right decision for him,” Kirby Smart said during the Georgia media day at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Saturday.

“He’s been at almost every (game), in terms of home game in Athens and playoff games. It’s tough that he’s not able to make it.”

Kirby Smart, 47, has often reflected on how much he learned in the coaching profession from his father, Sonny Smart.

“I give a lot of credit to my father who was my first coach,” Smart said, “And I grew up under his tutelage, and he meant a lot to me as a coach.”

Sonny Smart was a starting center for the Samford University football team and graduated from that Birmingham private school in 1970 before going on to a successful high school coaching career that led to him coaching Kirby at Bainbridge (Ga.) High School and an induction into the Decatur County Hall of Fame in 2019.

Kirby Smart was born in Montgomery, Ala, in 1975 while Sonny Smart was working at Holtville (Ala.) as the offensive and defensive line coach along with serving as that high school’s head baseball coach.

The Smart family moved to Bainbridge in 1982, and in 1988, Sonny Smart was named Bainbridge High School Head Football Coach and Decatur County Athletic Director.

Former Georgia SEC Player of the Year and head football coach Ray Goff, who signed Kirby Smart and Will Muschamp as players, is also a fan of Sonny Smart.

“Sonny was on Ralph Jones’ coaching staff, and we all had gotten along real well,” Goff said on Sunday. “Sonny was a go-getter and he’s known all over, but we were down there a lot because we enjoyed being around good people and good players. We obviously got to know each other even better through Kirby.”

Kirby Smart reflected on Saturday how his father influenced some of the things Georgia football fans have grown familiar with in the Bulldogs’ current program.

“He’s taught me so much just about the way you handle things, the right way, the wrong way,” Smart said. “Control the controllables. The moment’s never too big if you’re prepared. And I always watched the way he prepared our teams and our staff in high school. He was a very wise man, a man of few words. I tried to follow his mantra as a coach.

“I’ve certainly evolved from going to coach for other people, but a lot of my core beliefs came from the way he ran our programs in high school.”

Smart said his father and mother attended Georgia’s 50-30 win over LSU in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Dec. 3.

Sonny Smart was not, however, able to attend the Bulldogs’ 42-41 win over Ohio State at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Dec. 31.

“I wanted to call him that night, but he was already in bed by the time it got to that point,” Smart said of the Bulldogs’ last-minute win, which ended as the clock struck midnight. So the next afternoon, on the way home, I got to call him and talk.

“He’s a really special man to me.”

Georgia plays TCU in the CFP Championship Game at 7:30 p.m. on Monday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

“Nothing worse than watching your parents grow old,” Smart said. “It’s like taxes; it’s inevitable. They’re going to get old. And that’s been tough.”