Georgia coach Kirby Smart got his first coaching job as a defensive backs coach at LSU in 2004 under then-coach Nick Saban. (Photo courtesy LSU Athletics) ▲

LSU was riding high, just weeks removed from winning its first football national championship in 45 years when Nick Saban hired a 28-year old graduate assistant from Florida State to coach his defensive backs in late January of 2004.

His name was Kirby Smart.

"Coming into a situation where you have Coach Saban as the guy, that can be pretty intimidating for a lot of people," said Travis Daniels, a cornerback who was entering his senior season. "The thing I noticed about Kirby early on was that he was really self-aware. Not one time ever did I feel like he was a new coach or new to the business or hadn't done it a lot. He was really poised. That's not something you normally see from someone just about to get started. Because of that, I felt like he was able to get the trust from the guys and the trust from the coaching staff."

Smart took over a secondary that also returned All-American cornerback Corey Webster and safety LaRon Landry, a freshman All-American.

Webster hailed from Vacherie and Landry from Ama, two of 82 Louisianans on the Tiger roster.

"It was an incredible place to coach and recruit," Smart said this week. "I can remember going to my areas within the state and very well received. You're really the only major university there in the state within the SEC. So when you go out recruiting, it's not really recruiting as much as it is figuring out who the best players are and go get them."

Smart returns to Baton Rouge Saturday for the first time as a head coach when his No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs go up against the No. 13 Tigers.

He coached seven games in Tiger Stadium as an LSU assistant in his one season with the program, never losing. He returned four times as Alabama defensive coordinator under Saban, winning three times including twice in overtime.

Smart's connection at LSU was defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, his former Georgia teammate who he worked with at Valdosta State in 2000. Derek Dooley, LSU's special teams and running backs coach who also knew Smart from Georgia, also recommended him.

Saban and Smart met at the airport in Mobile, Ala., during Senior Bowl week.

"I had a lot of respect for the program that Nick had put together at LSU," Smart said in January before the national championship game against Alabama. "I remember wanting the job, but I wanted the job because I was a GA, I didn't want the job because it was Nick Saban. I wanted the job because I didn't have a job, and it was my first career SEC job, so it was a great opportunity for me."

Smart, a former All-SEC safety at Georgia, coached the defensive backs at Valdosta State and worked with them at Florida State.

"He was a secondary guy, and we were looking for a secondary coach," said Saban, a former defensive back at Kent State who coached the position during his career and was hands-on with the defensive backs. "I was very impressed with him from day one. He was very bright. He learned quickly."

Smart's first of 11 seasons working with Saban came in that 2004 season.

"He and I were rookies together under coach Saban's regime," said Leroy Ryals, hired soon after Smart as LSU's tight ends coach and now head coach at Cedar Shoals in Athens. "Our heads were spinning together."

Smart and Ryals lived in the same Baton Rouge hotel off I-10 when they first got to town, so they shared meals and stories together and talked recruiting since they both had different areas in Florida and Georgia. They played noon time basketball games with Saban and others on staff.

"That's where we probably had the best time right there," Ryals said. "I know personally I learned more from Coach Saban that year then all my years combined as far as how to run an organization and how to do things. We kind of went through that baptism together.

Smart was part of a coaching staff that now includes four SEC head coaches.

Besides Saban, there was offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher (now Texas A&M coach), Muschamp (now South Carolina coach) and Smart. Dooley is offensive coordinator now at Missouri and a former Tennessee head coach. James Coley, Georgia's quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator, was a graduate assistant.

As head coaches, Saban has won six national championships, Fisher one and Smart won the SEC championship and coached in the national title game in his second season.

"We had a rock-star staff, right?" said Daniels, who played eight seasons in the NFL. "Jimbo was my recruiting coordinator so he got me from South Florida (Hollywood) to LSU. I spent a lot of time with him. Saban is a real great coach for players and he's great at picking coaches. Jimbo would run the offensive side like he was the head coach. ...Everybody could get the job done and nobody needed to micromanage."

Saban, Fisher, Smart and Muschamp will make a combined $26.6 million this year.

Smart, back then, was the lowest paid coach on staff with a salary of $97,000, according to Louisiana Gannett News. He's making $6.6 million this year in a seven-year deal worth $49 million.

"Kirby and I used to laugh and tease each other on who's going to be the first person to have two commas in their salary," Ryals said. "Of course, he beat me so bad. I mess him with him all the time, 'Look, you've got two commas in your salary.' You at least can buy me a hot dog now."

The Tigers were preseason ranked No. 3 in 2004, but went 9-3 including a 45-16 loss at Georgia.

When the season ended, Saban bolted for the Miami Dolphins.

Smart landed another coaching job in the SEC—back at his alma mater—as running backs coach under Mark Richt. He reunited with Saban in 2006 with the Dolphins where he again coached Daniels, who was drafted in the fourth round a year earlier.

Smart and Saban worked closely together from 2007-15 during Alabama's rise again to be a college football behemoth, a relationship whose roots trace to that 2004 season at LSU.

"Baton Rouge is a great place," Smart said. "At the time when I was living there, it was a great place to be, enjoyed it a lot, got really good memories of a great staff. And being a young coach on that staff was very influential on me to get to be around guys like Jimbo and Will and obviously Coach Saban and Derek. There was a lot of good coaches on that staff. So it was a good experience for me."