Christian Robinson still has a photo from 12 years ago that he displays in his home. It’s from his days as an inside linebacker making a big play in a Georgia-Alabama game where everything was riding on the outcome.

Robinson snagged an AJ McCarron first-quarter fumble after a Jarvis Jones sack. In the end, the Crimson Tide celebrated a 32-28 victory over Robinson and the Bulldogs and later went on to win the national title. Georgia was five yards short at the end.

Now, as Alabama’s first-year outside linebackers coach, Robinson is preparing his guys for Georgia quarterback Carson Beck and the Bulldogs' offense in another top-5 matchup Saturday in Tuscaloosa.

“This is a game, being a part of it on both sides now, obviously everybody knows what this game means,” Robinson told the Athens Banner-Herald by phone Tuesday night after getting out of a meeting. “In this conference, it will be the biggest stage of the year. I’m excited to see our guys get to play in this game. That’s the thing I talk to the guys the most. This is one of those games you’ll always remember and always remember the side you came out on. There’s not going to be any shortage of motivation for both sides.”

The Lawrenceville native was back at his old high school, Greater Atlanta Christian, on Friday night (with an NCAA waiver) during the bye week to be honored with induction into the school’s athletic hall of fame. Former UGA players Brannan Southerland and Joseph Thomas, who also graduated from GAC, were there.

Robinson and his wife Kaley are expecting their first child — a daughter — in November and a baby shower was held Saturday in Atlanta.

Robinson, 34, is in his seventh coaching stop including six in the SEC.

He was a graduate assistant and quality control coordinator at Georgia in 2013 and 2014 under defensive coordinators Todd Grantham and then Jeremy Pruitt. He then was graduate assistant at Ole Miss in 2015 and 2016, before reuniting with Grantham at Mississippi State in 2017 as GA again and Florida from 2018-2021 as linebackers coach.

He coached linebackers again at Auburn in 2022 and then Baylor in 2023.

Robinson and the former Kaley Crook, a UGA grad who has worked as a cardiac nurse, started dating after he left Georgia after being in the same group of friends.

“When I left Athens, I was like, I miss her, I want to be around her,” he said. “She moved to Nashville and I was in Oxford and she started making that drive every weekend. I would drive up there when we were off. She’s been following me ever since we both left Athens in the spring of 2015.”

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They married in 2021 and have made three moves since then.

“She started to have to move some of these by herself when we’ve been in transition,” he said.

The connection for the latest move was the Wommack family.

Robinson worked as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss under defensive coordinator Dave Wommack, whose son Kane is now Alabama defensive coordinator for first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer. Kane was a graduate assistant earlier with current Georgia defensive line coach Tray Scott.

Robinson was hired in February after William Inge left to join Tennessee’s staff,

“Christian earned enough respect from my dad and the rest of the defensive staff in his second year get to coach the inside linebackers and really get to spend a lot of time with those guys on the field and in the meeting room,” Kane Wommack told reporters this week. “That’s a credit to who he is, the character that he has, the work ethic and he’s also a very smart ball coach who has a bright future.”

Robinson played in 51 games for Georgia from 2009-12, starting 17. He rang up 159 tackles for a team that went to back-to-back SEC championship games his last two years.

Georgia offensive coordinator Mile Bobo and Georgia offensive line coach Stacy Searels recruited Robinson in their first stints on the Bulldogs staff.

“I run into them on the road all the time,” Robinson said.

Robinson’s outside linebackers — led by Qua Russaw and Que Robinson — go up against a Georgia offense led by fifth-year senior Beck, who Robinson puts in the same class as his former teammate Aaron Murray and Matthew Stafford — two guys he went against on the scout team as a freshman in 2008.

“He’s a guy who’s performed on big stages,” Robinson said. “He’s right there with those two guys in my opinion which puts him with some of the best in college football. He’s great at making all the throws and he has a presence about him.”

Robinson is 2-5 against Georgia as a coach, which is par for the course against Kirby Smart-led Georgia teams.

“I always sum it up with this, I obviously love my university that I graduated from, but at the same time, you have a group like a tribe that you’re with,” Robinson said. “You learn that going through this coaching profession. I’ve got a group of guys I’m with every day that I know how much this game means to them and want to do my best for them.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Former Georgia LB Christian Robinson prepping Alabama for top-5 tilt