Quotes from Kirby Smart

I might not have a conference championship or a national championship as a head coach, but I had the recruiting factor.

My goal is to outwork everybody in recruiting, sign the best players in the state, and turn these guys into the best team we can.

The amount of pressure that I've put on myself as a defensive coordinator for the last 10, 11 years, I really believe there's a lot more decisions that go into that position than the head coach.

To be honest, it makes you a lot better coach when your boss is in the meeting room. You're a lot more driven every day.

Coach Saban's a great coach; he does it his way, and I have to do it my way. I have to cut my own cloth.

When you step out there on the field as a corner in our system, you have to be ready to play because humility is one week away.

What I'm worried about is our team and our players developing and getting better. That's the most important thing.

What you have success with, you feel comfortable with, you always rely on that a little bit.

I've seen Coach Saban over the years have to make a lot of tough decisions, and there's not one decision he doesn't make that he doesn't bounce ideas off the staff. To me, that's invaluable.

Every college coach I talk to won't say it on record, but everyone's thinking, 'Should I go to the league?' Because you don't have the same requirements. It's different. The hours are different.

Every young man that we want to bring here to the University of Georgia, we want them to graduate from this place.

There's a lot of people who think in order to be a good head coach, you've got to be a head coach at a smaller school.

It's a lot more important to get quality young men and good student-athletes that can be successful at the University of Georgia. That's my No. 1 goal.

A team is a group of young men playing together. The program is the entirety of that.

I felt like I was selling a product of the University of Georgia that's really special and really special to me as far as the education you can get, the development you can get, and the league we play in. That's what I've sold.

I could finish my career being a defensive coordinator and say, 'Hey, he's Mickey Andrews.'

A lot of people think our standard is to be first in the SEC, be first in the country, first in our red zone, and run defense. We really don't go by that motto. We go by, 'Be the best Alabama defense there's been.'

To me, personally, my development to become a head coach will be much better working for Coach Saban than necessarily going somewhere else because you learn every day that you're in there.

When your mom and dad read the paper, they like to know their sons are on the roster.

The ultimate deal is: Are you winning and are you successful? The guys who've done that have had opportunities.

Change is uncomfortable.

Every day I pull into that parking spot that says 'Head Football Coach,' I get out of my car and pinch myself sometimes, just to make sure it's real, sort of like, 'Is this really happening?'

Coach Richt is a good friend of mine. I respect Coach Richt and worked for him for a year and respect the man he is and respect what he stands for.

I think the growth you get from working at a place like Alabama and with a program under Nick Saban, it helps me immensely.