The 2026 college football season is still six months away, but Kirby Smart and Mario Cristobal are already going at it.
Speaking at the Steve Spurrier Awards in Gainesville, Florida, the two coaches traded verbal jabs fit for any celebrity roast.
Smart was on the mic talking about Georgia defensive back Ellis Robinson IV, who was being honored as Freshmen Defensive Player of the Year. Talking about Robinson IV’s parents, Smart got to work on his comedy routine.
‘He was a joy to recruit. We had a great time with the family,’ Smart said. ‘They were going back and forth about the 50th birthday party (dad) got, and the 50th party (mom) got, and it wasn’t quite the same. Mama wins out when it comes to that. We probably sponsored that trip with all the NIL money we spent… that’s alright, they deserve it.
‘Mario is right behind them and if it would have been up to him they would have paid a lot more NIL money because it came down to us two, so I don’t like you being real close to Mario right now, you know what I’m saying. (Robinson’s) still got another year left. You gotta be careful around Mario, sometimes he’ll take your players, you know what I mean. No, I’m just kidding.’
Quarterback Carson Beck transferred to Miami from Georgia after the 2024 season and led the Hurricanes to the national championship game this winter.
‘I was talking to Mario earlier and he came up to me and gave me a Lane Kiffin joke. And he and Lane are very similar in a lot of ways,’ Smart said. ‘They’re like best friends, and he came up to me, and he said, ‘You have to start getting on some protein shakes, you’ve had too many carbs.’ And I said well you probably need to spend some time with Steve Spurrier because he won more title conferences at Duke than you have at Miami.’
In his closing, Smart said, ‘I gotta get out of here before Mario goes because I don’t want to hear any (expletive) from him.’
It didn’t take long for the (expletive) to come Smart’s way as Cristobal then got his chance for payback.
‘It’s great to watch what a player like Carson Beck can do with great coaching, you know what I mean,’ Cristobal joked.
‘Let’s give it up for Kirby Smart. If it wasn’t for all his years of pre-NIL, we wouldn’t have NIL right now anyways.’
‘Robinson family,’ Cristobal continued, ‘nice to see you. We leave at 9:30 on the real jet. We have more than one restaurant in Miami as opposed to Athens.’
‘You gotta give a guy like Kirby credit. When you have all that time to sit at home watching us play on TV throughout the playoffs, when you don’t take care of business… You know, congratulations on the SEC, the championship, that’s awesome. We were 5-0 against the SEC, I don’t know what you were.’
Unfortunately, Miami and Georgia don’t play in the regular season in 2026. But maybe they’ll get to meet each other in the CFP to see who gets the last laugh.