TAMPA, Fla. — No one has spent more time preparing for Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr. over the last two years than Kirby Smart.
Georgia played Ole Miss during the 2024 and 2025 seasons as well as the College Football Playoff back in December. The Rebels won two of those contests, a 28-10 beating in Oxford in 2024 and the 39-34 Sugar Bowl thriller in New Orleans.
The Rebels averaged 37.5 points per game in two tries against the 2025 Bulldog defense. The other 12 Georgia opponents averaged 14.3.
“He’s hard to play,” Smart said of Kiffin. “I don’t like having to play his teams because I know what he knows. I know how he thinks about defenses. He knows what he’s doing.”
Smart got to know Kiffin when the two were coordinating for Nick Saban at Alabama. Kiffin has often talked about his time around his father and long-time NFL coordinator Monte Kiffin, Pete Carrol and Nick Saban. All three coached defense and help mold Kiffin into the offensive mind he is today.
He learned what gave those defensive coaches issues, and he’s implemented that into his attack.
“He is very bright,” Smart said. “He does an incredible job evolving with college football. He was really good at that with us at Alabama. He made Coach Saban uncomfortable. Let’s just say what it is. He helped revolutionalize that offense and bring it along and did some really good things in a day and age people weren’t doing them.
In Athens last season, Ole Miss scored touchdowns on its first five possessions. Three of the drives went 75 yards. Two went 65. No offensive unit mustered that on Smart’s defense all season.
Linebacker Raylen Wilson felt his unit was prepared. The results took time to show up.
“Eye control,” Wilson said of Georgia’s prep. “You’ve got to have eye control. If you don’t train for it the right way, you won’t execute. When you play against a team that plays fast ball. You’ve got to spend time on that in practice.”
Kiffin promises to bring that frantic pace to Baton Rouge. He’ll take the reins of an offense that finished last in the SEC in rushing and 14th in scoring.
