ROGERS COLUMN: Smart not looking to make move

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Kirby Smart is personable, outgoing, intelligent, funny and a pretty fine football coach.

But Alabama’s defensive coordinator insists he’s not driven to move on and take the first job that comes his way.

“I just want to win, that’s the bottom line,” Smart said while discussing Thursday night’s BCS National Championship Game between the Crimson Tide and Texas. “I’m not gonna be one of these guys that wakes up when I’m 50 and say, ‘Man, I was a failure. I didn’t get to be a head coach.’ I really don’t care. I love coaching defense. I love coaching players.”

His time to be a head coach is coming. Last month, Smart won the Frank Broyles Award as the nation’s top football assistant.

“An unbelievable experience for me,” said Smart, who said he was surprised to win. “What a great credit to your staff and your players to be able to get recognized. That kind of award is humbling to me. I went there in awe of everybody. To win it was even more special.”

There are two days a year when Alabama’s offensive and defensive coordinators speak to the media — at the beginning of training camp in August, and during bowl week.

Smart’s time with the media Sunday morning underscored the coach’s personality.

He was asked if Nebraska had provided a blueprint for how to stop Texas.

“Recruit hard and get Ndomukong (Suh),” he deadpanned, referring to the the Huskers’ All-American defensive lineman.

“I don’t know that it did. They do a lot of similar things that we do. We know Bo (Pellini, Nebraska’s coach). We know a lot of those guys over there. You share ideas.”

Part of that “sharing” drew questions about Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops’ pre-Christmas visit to Tuscaloosa. Smart said there was very little information exchanged.

“We didn’t really meet with Bob Stoops. He came to our practice, but we never even saw him until we got on the field,” Smart said. “Then we got to break for Christmas after, so I certainly wasn’t hanging around to meet with Bob Stoops. I was going to Christmas.”

Still, he knows how it looks for the coach of Texas’ biggest rival to show up at bowl practice.

“I’m sure Texas thinks they came up there and drew on the board and told us all this stuff,” Smart said. “But Texas has beaten them two or three years in a row, right? Maybe we’re talking to the wrong guys if we’re talking to them.

“We really haven’t shared ideas with them. We visited with Texas in the offseason. We also visited with Oklahoma. I don’t read much into that. ’Cause at the end of the day, we’ve got to do what we do.”

Smart had a quick answer when asked what makes Alabama such a good defense.

“Players,” he said. “That kid over there (nodding toward senior nose tackle Terrence Cody), that kid over there (looking in the direction of senior cornerback Javier Arenas), three in there (an adjacent room with junior Rolando McClain and seniors Cory Reamer and Lorenzo Washington.

“We knew last year we’ve got a lot of seniors coming back,” Smart acknowledged. “But the fact they’ve bought in, they’ve done what they’re supposed to do and practiced the way they’ve practiced, that’s what makes them such a good defense ...

“These guys bought in and they went through some hard times. And now they’re reaping the benefits — which they deserve.”

Ken Rogers covers Alabama sports for the Dothan Eagle.