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Video: Will Muschamp explains basketball battles against Kirby Smart
By Chris Wright
Published:
HOOVER, Ala. — Will Muschamp and Kirby Smart go back a long ways.
So, too, do some of their stories. Both played at Georgia and coached together at Valdosta State and LSU. Both have joked about looking forward to kicking each other’s butt as SEC head coaches this season.
Both also like to talk about a certain football game at Valdosta State, many moons ago, in which, depending on your source, Smart sent either 10 or 12 players on the field.
Smart tried to clarify Tuesday, saying he mistakenly had 10 on the field — not 12, as Muschamp insists — but then turned the topic to what happened after that game.
“What he never tells anybody is later that day we played a pickup basketball game, and me and coach Hatcher beat his eyes out, and he ran out of the gym mad,” Smart said Tuesday during SEC Media Days. “So I want to make sure I got that out there. He left the gym and we never saw him for like for more hours because we beat him to the mercy rule in basketball.”
Muschamp took the stage Thursday, and it didn’t take Coach Boom long to respond.
As a reporter began to recount Smart’s comments about the football and pickup basketball game, Muschamp cut him off.
“That’s not true,” Muschamp said, laughing. “I saw it. I hope he coaches as well as his memory is because it’s not very good.”
Muschamp continued …
“He put 12 guys on the field, not 10,” he said. “Because I made the statement this is not the Canadian (Football) League, and if we could play with 12, we’re going to play really good defense.”
“And the basketball game didn’t happen that day. We did play a lot of basketball games, and within those basketball games, it was not unusual to walk out of there with a bloody nose, black eye, a bad ankle, and a sore back. Because there were no fouls called.”
Chris Wright is Executive Editor at SaturdayDownSouth.com. Email him at cwright@saturdaydownsouth.com.
Managing Editor
A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.
