Once the National Championship game between Alabama and Clemson is over on Monday night, Kirby Smart will be Georgia's full-time head coach. It will be the first time in eight years that Smart won't be working with his mentor Nick Saban.

The two have spent a total of 10 years together with Smart coaching under Saban with the Miami Dolphins and LSU before making the move to Alabama, and the legendary head coach wishes his long-time assistant well in his future endeavors.

You know, it's sort of like you have a son and he's moving away, and you want to see him do really, really well because we all go through stations of life where things change, so now someone else will have a better – an opportunity," Saban said. "Kirby will have an opportunity. Somebody will have an opportunity to do what he does, and hopefully we can provide a little leadership and guidance that will help him along the way have a chance to be successful."

Alabama is gunning for a fourth National Championship in seven years on Monday night and Smart has been an integral part of that run. Of his eight years in Tuscaloosa, Smart has been the defensive coordinator for seven of them. In fact, Alabama's defense made major improvement once Smart was named to that post in 2008.

Saban has seen his soon-to-be former assistant at work and is quite complimentary of Smart's work in Tuscaloosa. He also believes Smart will continue that success in Athens.

"Kirby has done a fantastic job in every way in terms of relationships with players, developing players, recruiting players, doing a good job of implementing scheme, system, getting people to buy in and believe in," Saban said. "Kirby has done a fantastic job, and I certainly appreciate the fact that he's stuck here with us and done a really good job so far in trying to finish this year for our players, and I think that's the number one reason that he's here. I'm sure he's going to be a very, very successful head coach.

***BamaOnline Team Insider Charlie Potter contributed to this story***

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