Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart said the rule keeping head coaches from visiting schools in the spring wasn’t a dramatic change for the Crimson Tide staff.
Even with head coach Nick Saban’s passion for recruiting — and dismay for the new rule — widely known, Smart noted that Saban wasn’t always on the recruiting trail even before the ban.
“It was a really easy adjustment for us,”
said Smart, who represented the University of Alabama at the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame Golf Classic on Friday at Highland oaks. “We always have a plan if he (Saban) doesn’t get to go out. Really, the last couple of springs he wasn’t out every day. There were days he wasn’t out. Last month, it was just like those days.”
Smart, the Tide’s defensive coordinator and secondary coach, said Saban loves to stay busy.
“If he’s in the office more you’d better have something for him to do — whether it’s breaking down tape or watching something else cause he always wants to be working,”
said the coach.
With Saban in Tuscaloosa, Smart spent his May covering his recruiting territory.
“I did all the Wiregrass area, south Georgia, Gwinnett County in Atlanta and the Montgomery area,”
Smart said.
It was easy to see the coach is eager for August.
“I can’t wait to get them in there,”
Smart said. “It’s what we love to do. I like coaching. I like being on the grass. The recruiting’s not as much fun as the coaching. So you want to get back to coaching.”
From now until August, coaches have little supervision over player workouts. Saban said leaders emerge and a team’s maturity develops over the summer.
Asked if this team has matured over the past year, Smart shook his head and said, “You’d like to think so.”
“Ninety percent of the guys on last year’s team are on this year’s team. There’s only a small percentage of them gone,”
Smart said. “At the same time I think they’re making better decisions as a group, or at least they have so far — knock on wood."
“We obviously want them to behave and do the right things. But they’re college kids and they’re going to make mistakes.”
Smart played in the event that will benefit the Hawk-Houston Boys and Girls Club of Dothan. It is part of the festivities leading to tonight’s induction ceremonies for the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame.
“Jimbo (Loftin) called me and said they were having a big event and asked if I’d come down and represent Alabama,”
Smart said. “I said I’d love to. I went to coach Saban and he really wanted to do it — and jumped at the opportunity for me to play in it and represent the university.”
