Kirby Smart and Brian Kelly have met in some of the highest-profile games of the Georgia football ’s coach’s tenure.

The first-ever matchups between Notre Dame and Georgia in South Bend in 2017 and Athens in 2019 were events as much as big-time games.

Smart won those two, as well as the 2022 SEC championship game against LSU and Kelly that now feels like it was 20 years ago.

Kelly, it seemed then, was just getting started with the Tigers. His team featured future Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jayden Daniels against a Georgia team that would go on to win back-to-back national titles.

Now, Kelly is gone from the SEC, fired on Sunday Oct. 26, a day after a 49-25 home loss to Texas A&M.

Kelly became the third SEC coach not to make it to November. Being the winningest active NCAA

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