Kirby Smart back at Sugar Bowl a year after father’s death, New Orleans attack

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NEW ORLEANS – Kirby Smart has coached in the Sugar Bowl so many times that he’s not paying lip service when he talks about the hospitality he feels when he comes here.

He felt it when Georgia football arrived at the airport on Monday afternoon and he was greeted by bowl officials.

“I feel like I’ve played in this game or coached in this game a lot of years, and very few groups do it quite like the Sugar Bowl does it,” he said.

This is Smart’s ninth Sugar Bowl — once as a graduate assistant at Florida State in 2002, once as running backs coach at Georgia in 2005, three times as Alabama defensive coordinator and now four times as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

Last year’s trip was so different for Smart — not because of the outcome as Notre Dame beat Georgia and not because of the terrorist attack early New Year’s Day that killed 14 people on Bourbon Street and postponed the game a day. Instead, it was because of Smart’s personal loss.

His father, Sonny, died at age 76 following complications from hip surgery after a fall while walking on New Year’s Eve in New Orleans. Kirby, his mother Sharon and siblings Karl and Kendall were at Ochsner Medical Center when Sonny Smart passed away early on Jan. 4.

“I think landing yesterday brought back some memories, because the last time I was here, I was just leaving two or three days after the game with my family and it was different,” Smart said at Sugar Bowl Media Day on Tuesday, Dec. 30. “It was a different mood, a different time. Very different frame of mind. You can’t help but think a little bit about last time I was here, what I was going through. I was going to a funeral home and going to meet with people that I had never met with, and it was a very unique experience.”

Sonny Smart, a former football coach at Bainbridge and Rabun County, often attended Georgia games where he could be spotted on the sideline.

He was along last year for the Sugar Bowl trip.

“But that’s not what this trip is about and our guys know that,” Kirby Smart said. “We owe it to all those guys over there in sweat suits (his players) to be focused on the task at hand. It was a terrible time in this city. Unfortunately, people lost their lives during that event. It was a horrific deal. It changed everything in this city and really the celebration of New Year’s. But our guys are excited to be back, and they’re excited to have an opportunity to play in one of the best events.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirby Smart on returning to New Orleans a year after father’s death

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