TAMPA, Fla. — You probably saw the viral clip of Kirby Smart talking about Lane Kiffin.

Smart asked for the definition of troll. He called Kiffin “the Adonis of all college football coaches.” As two of the top coaches in the league, fans and media members alike enjoy when these two take playful barbs at each other in the media.

But the far more telling comments about the relationship between the Georgia coach and LSU coach came just after the viral moment.

And Smart’s answer shows the deeper and more honest appreciation he has for one of his top foils.

Smart was speaking about the coaching group chat he shares with Kiffin and how often the LSU coach brings up memories of his father, famed NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.

The elder Kiffin passed away in July of 2024.

“Derrick Brooks sending him a text about his dad, and just you know, when you don’t have a dad to share that with,” Smart said. “Because I’ve gone through that, you got to have a group to share that with to get your like self-worth and your motivation.”

Smart knows that feeling of being a coach’s son. His father Sonny was a legendary high school coach in Alabama and Georgia.

Kiffin’s father passed away just before the 2024 season. Smart lost his dad just after, as Sonny Smart passed away at the age of 76 in January of 2025.

Smart and Kiffin, accomplished coaches in their own right, are still deeply proud of their fathers.

“I think him, him sharing those things reminds me a lot of times of my dad. And it’s like you want somebody to appreciate what your dad did, and you don’t have him to share that with.”

Monte Kiffin’s most-famous coaching stint came when he was the defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1996 through 2008. Smart has little doubt that when Kiffin steps to the podium in Tampa on Thursday morning, his father will be on his mind.

Kiffin and Smart will forever be linked because of their time together at Alabama. The two overlapped during the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Smart’s final two as Alabama’s defensive coordinator before he became head coach.

“He is very bright,” Smart said. “He does an incredible job of evolving with college football, he was really good at that with us at Alabama. You know, he made Coach (Nick) Saban uncomfortable. Let’s just say what it is, and he helped revolutionize that offense and bring it along and get some really good things in a day and age when people weren’t doing them.”

A year after Smart left to go to Georgia, Kiffin was hired to be the head coach at Florida Atlantic.

The time at Alabama linked the two together, but they’ve been on different paths even prior to departing. Smart stayed on to help Alabama win a national championship in 2015. Kiffin was famously asked to leave before the conclusion of the 2016 season, which ended with Alabama losing to Clemson in the national championship game.

Smart led Georgia to an SEC title and national championship appearance in his second season in Athens. Kiffin wouldn’t become an SEC head coach again until he took the Ole Miss job in 2020. Despite seven seasons coaching in the league between Ole Miss and Tennessee, he’s yet to win an SEC championship or coach in a College Football Playoff game.

Kiffin would’ve done so a year ago after leading the Rebels to an 11-1 regular season record. But he accepted the LSU job and was unable to coach Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff.

The Rebels went on to make the College Football Playoff semifinals along the way, avenging their lone regular season loss to Georgia.

Ole Miss doesn’t think all that highly of Kiffin anymore, but Smart is still deeply impressed by what the new LSU coach built in Oxford, Mississippi.

Whereas Smart has leaned heavily on the tried-and-true recruiting method Saban employed at Alabama, Kiffin has mastered the transfer portal to replenish his roster annually.

“He can make players successful in his system just as easy as the players can make him successful,” Smart said. “so he’s done a good job of that.”

Smart and Kiffin have coached against each other in each of the previous three seasons, with each team winning on its home field.

The two aren’t scheduled to face each other this season, as LSU will visit Georgia in 2027. If they’re to meet, it will either come in the SEC championship game or the College Football Playoff.

Both schools expect to be there, in no small part to their two coaches. They’re the highest-paid in the SEC and two of the best in the game.

While their methods for success may be diametrically opposed, the two carry far more similarities than most people realize.