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Georgia coach Kirby Smart, seen here with Alabama, will square off with friend and South Carolina coach Will Muschamp on Oct. 8. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

When it comes to Kirby Smart, Will Muschamp is looking forward to "whippin' his ass."

Let's be clear about this: The two coaches are friends, not that it matters much.

However, when Muschamp's South Carolina Gamecocks meet Smart's Georgia Bulldogs on Oct. 8 in an SEC East showdown, friendships are put on hold.

"Honestly, I don't really like the competition with friends and people that you've been with," Muschamp told ESPN.com. "You spend a lot of time with these men coaching with them and you become close.

"But there's no doubt on that day, I'm looking forward to whippin' his ass, and he'd probably say the same thing about me."

The two are the subject of a story, penned by Greg Ostendorf, which charts the intersecting football careers of both - as players and coaches. Both played at Georgia.

"One of my best memories (of Muschamp) was sitting in the locker room as a freshman," Smart told ESPN. "He was a senior, he was a starter, he was a player, he was a leader, he was a captain. He had been there five years, a walk-on who had earned a scholarship. Here I am, a freshman scholarship player and I was sitting in the locker room after a scrimmage just shaking my head. I was like, 'Man, will I ever play here? I don't know if I'll ever play here.'

"He just kind of laughed and said, 'Stay the course. You'll be fine.' Because he'd been through it. At the time, I didn't think I would ever play. I was just overwhelmed. And of course, I ended up playing my next year.'"

They crossed paths a couple of times during their coaching careers.

Muschamp, as the defensive coordinator at Valdosta State, hired Smart, who was a Georgia graduate assistant at the time, as a secondary coach.

The two then coached under Nick Saban at LSU.

Now, they will meet Oct. 8 as head coaches of SEC East programs.

In four seasons at Florida he led the Gators to a 28-21 record.

Meanwhile, Smart had been at Alabama since 2007 when Saban's tenure started. He elected to stay with the Crimson Tide through its national-title game win even after he accepted the Georgia job in early December.