A lot of coaches have turned a year, or a few years, working at Alabama under Nick Saban into high profile coordinator jobs, FBS head coaching jobs, and even NFL head coaching opportunities like Brian Daboll with the New York Giants.
Kirby Smart hunkered down with Saban for 11 seasons, soaking up everything there is to know about rebuilding and operating a football dynasty while spending over a decade with Saban.
He's been able to use those lessons in head-to-head matchups with his mentor over the last several seasons, including this last season's national title game match up that the Bulldogs won 33-18.
A few days ago. DawgNation dug up a really good nugget that Smart shared during a UGA business conference in 2018 about what being the leader of a program, or company, really boils down to in simplest forms.
“If you are a micromanager and you like having your hands on everything, there’s a lot of things to have your hands on when you’re the head coach or CEO," Smart explained.
“I had to be comfortable letting other people do it, and then I had to do a better job of explaining exactly what I wanted to be done. What I was finding, I’m not telling them exactly what to do, but I’m getting upset when it’s not done correctly."
"So making sure you define the role and how you want it done, demanding they do it right, and confronting them when they don’t is really important.”
I think that is an especially important message for aspiring, as well as young and first-time head coaches.