Kirby Smart celebrated his 19th wedding anniversary in memorable fashion Tuesday in Atlanta: Georgia's top dog offered his mentor, Nick Saban, a job.
Addressing reporters at SEC media days, Smart piled onto Monday's trending topic: that Saban, after 18 months out of the game, is considering a return to the sidelines.
"Yeah, I called and offered him Muschamp's job," Smart, who no longer has former Florida and South Carolina coach Will Muschamp on staff as an advisor, deadpanned. "But, he was overqualified, so he wasn't interested."
Smart then said all the hot air -- and subsequent digital ink -- about a potential return of college football's sideline king almost almost brought a smile.
"I heard all the scuttlebutt and everything about it; I almost laughed," said Smart, who worked with Saban at LSU, the NFL's Miami Dolphins and across multiple national championships at Alabama. "It was like somebody needed something interesting to talk about yesterday, so they chose to go to Coach Saban to do it.
"The game is better with him involved, and he is involved. He is passionate about it."
In fact, Smart and Saban still conduct their own de facto chalk talks.
"He and I still talk and share ideas from time to time about defensive philosophies and the way to do things," said Smart, who's won six national championships between Alabama and Georgia. "He's still watching tape and very, very involved in football. He loves it.
"His brilliance, as brilliant as he is in many ways is around football. It's around scheming. It's around another way to do something to stay ahead of the offensive minds, and I think that's one of the elite talents he has, and he still loves that. He's still passionate about that."
Smart's most revealing insight came from noting that Saban doesn't control his own coaching destiny.
"Make no mistake about it," Smart said. "The boss at home is going to make that call for him, not him."
In this case, Smart's implication is clearly Terry Saban, Nick Saban's wife of 54 years.