Even though the Lane train has taken off from the Ole Miss station, Kirby Smart won't miss sharing jokes from his Alabama days during the Ole Miss rematch.
He found a fellow Saban disciple, better yet a fellow defensive-minded head coach in Pete Golding.
Even though they never actually worked together in Tuscaloosa, they share the same roots and Sabanian philosophy, one that both deeply respect in each other.
"Yeah, lot of respect for what Pete's done. It's a little unique. I spent a lot of time on the defensive side for us, so I'm usually looking at other teams' offenses, which has not been Pete's forte, nor mine. So we don't spend a lot of time on that," Smart said in his shared press conference with Golding on Tuesday.
"Through the years, he's done a tremendous job defensively. Got an opportunity now to kind of form and mold a program in his eyes and how he wants to do it. And he's been around some really good ones, I know that. And very different leaders in the guys he's been around. So it allows you to grow when you're around different kind of leadership styles like he's been around."
Golding already talked about Smart's defensive mastermind in his press conference the day before.
"Number one, the respect factor that I’ve always had for Coach Smart and the job that he’s done every year, whether he was in the coordinator at Alabama, and I was a young coordinator, Division II and 1AA, always studying their tape and trying to figure out what they’re doing and how we can increase our package and do it better," Golding said.
"Obviously, he was a defensive back like I was, some of those similarities. But there wasn’t a friendship of having worked together, really been around him. You feel like you know him through the people that you’ve worked with. And then obviously, I’ve worked with a lot of guys that work with him. So you feel like you know him probably better than you do. But it’s always been more of a respect factor for that.”
Until now, it was Smart's defense vs. Kiffin's offense. With Goding's entry it becomes defense vs. defense, while Ole Miss still has Kiffin's offense.
The New Year's night showdown will be an interesting one.