Georgia football coach Kirby Smart, who cut his teeth as an assistant under Nick Saban and then went up against him competing for championships, was asked Thursday morning if he was surprised by the Alabama coach’s retirement.

“I mean, yeah and no,” Smart said Thursday morning on Atlanta's 92.9 The Game in his first public comments since Saban’s sudden retirement announcement a day earlier stunned much of the college football world. “A little shocked when it came about. It’s one of those things it’s inevitable for all of us. We’re all going to walk away. Sometimes you walk away on your own terms, sometimes you don’t.  I think it’s pretty cool he got to walk away on his own terms.”

Smart said he heard Saban was still working and coaching “up until the last minute it sounds like yesterday.”

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Saban won six national championships at Alabama during his 17 seasons. Smart was there for four of them as defensive coordinator until being hired by Georgia after the 2015 season.

“What he and Miss Terry (his wife) have meant to the game of football, but especially to Tuscaloosa, they’ve been incredible,” said Smart, who also worked under Saban at LSU and the Miami Dolphins. “He’s put a lot of coaches through his coaching factory, I can assure you of that.”

Smart has been Saban’s most successful former assistant, winning national titles in 2021 and 2022.

“There’s a lot of respect both ways between he and I,” Smart said. “I’ve told him that. I make it a point to tell him how much I appreciate what he’s done for the game and for other coaches, not just me. He’s done a lot for the game of football. … Nobody in this business works as hard as he does and he demands a lot of his staff, but he does it himself. I’ve got respect for that.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: What Georgia football coach Kirby Smart said on Nick Saban retirement