How Kirby Smart built Georgia into another Alabama

IT WAS FINALLY over. Staying on as Alabama's defensive coordinator for a month after becoming the head coach at Georgia was more stressful than Kirby Smart had imagined. But a promise was a promise, and he kept it, reminding himself during sleepless nights that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. And it wasn't a train, it was a jubilant Crimson Tide locker room in Arizona, having just beaten Clemson to win the national championship.

Smart's hair was still wet from a postgame shower when a group of reporters crowded around him after the 45-40 victory on Jan. 11, 2016 -- a 40-year-old getting ready to tackle his first head-coaching job, which happened to be at his alma mater. A bus was…