It’s been nearly 60 years since Miami played Georgia in football, but Monday night in Gainesville, Fla., the head coaches for both programs went at each other like bitter rivals.
Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Miami’s Mario Cristobal — former assistants at Alabama under Nick Saban — had a good time roasting each other at the fifth annual Steve Spurrier Awards dinner, which honored several coaches and players, including Hurricanes freshman receiver Malachi Toney and Bulldogs redshirt freshman cornerback Ellis Robinson IV.
Smart, 50, took the mic first and went after Cristobal, 55, for sitting a little too close to Robinson. Georgia and Miami were the two finalists for Robinson in his high school recruitment.
“If it had been up to him, he would have paid a lot more NIL money,” Smart said of Cristobal. “So, I don’t like you being real close to Mario right now. He’s still got another year left. Gotta be careful around Mario. Sometimes he’ll take your players if you know what I mean.”
Smart then took another shot at Cristobal over Miami’s record in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Hurricanes have not won a league title since joining the ACC in 2004.
“(Cristobal) came up to me, he’s like, ‘You’ve got to start getting some protein shakes in — you’ve had too many carbs,’” Smart said. “So, I told him you’ve got to spend more time around Steve Spurrier because he won more conference championships at Duke than you have at Miami.”
Georgia and Miami both made the College Football Playoff. The Hurricanes (13-3) reached the national championship game in January for the first time in 23 seasons, but did so without even playing for their league title. Georgia went 12-2, won a second consecutive SEC crown, but lost to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. Had the Bulldogs won, Miami and Georgia would have met in the Fiesta Bowl.
Cristobal didn’t waste any time responding to Smart’s ribbing when he was handed the mic moments later after a clip of Hurricanes highlights had played on television screens at the ceremony.
“I didn’t know this was like this, but I’m glad it is,” Cristobal said with a smile. “First thing I’ll say, it’s great right there to watch (a video of) what a player like Carson Beck could do with great coaching. You know what I mean?”
Beck played for Georgia for five seasons before transferring to Miami last winter.
“Let’s give it up for Kirby Smart. I mean, if it wasn’t for all his years of pre-NIL, we wouldn’t have NIL right now,” Cristobal said. “Robinson family, great seeing you. We leave at 9:30 on the real jet. We have more than one restaurant in Miami as opposed to Athens.”
Cristobal kept taking shots.
“I can go on for a little bit now,” he said with a chuckle. “You got to give a guy like Kirby credit. I mean, when you have all that time to sit at home watching us play on TV throughout the playoffs when you don’t take care of business … but congratulations on the SEC championship. That’s awesome. We were 5-0 against the SEC (in the last three seasons). I don’t know what you were.”
Cristobal then turned his focus on the hometown Gators.
“I’m in enemy territory,” the coach said. “I got a feeling some of you guys are on Kirby’s side. You guys are super professional. I never felt so welcome in enemy territory — except (in 2024) at The Swamp, 41-17.”
Hearing some boos, Cristobal tried to win back the home crowd.
“That was meant for that Georgia guy,” the former Miami lineman said. “Can we all say screw Georgia?”
Earlier in the evening, Smart took a shot at the Gators’ recent on-field struggles by making a joke about Spurrier’s daughter, a realtor in Gainesville, helping four different coaches buy homes in the area while he’s been Georgia’s coach since 2016.