As Alabama's defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart was on the winning side of six consecutive meetings against offenses that were guided by Jim Chaney.
That doesn't mean Smart, the new head coach at Georgia, didn't like what Chaney had to offer.
Chaney's Tennessee offenses from 2009 to 2012 and his Arkansas offenses in 2013 and 2014 never managed more than 13 points in any game against Smart's Crimson Tide. The final encounter between the two was Alabama's 14-13 win last season in Fayetteville, when the Crimson Tide prevailed despite being outgained 346 yards to 227.
Smart announced Chaney as his new offensive coordinator Saturday.
"He's always been able to run the ball when he had to run the ball, and he's always been able to throw the ball when that was a strength of his," Smart said Monday during a 15-minute conference call. "He's multiple and uses a lot of formations. He uses the tight ends well, and he's really a guy who uses whatever personnel he has, and that intrigued me.
"When I met with him, I felt really comfortable and had a really good feeling. I've had to call defenses against him, and he's created a lot of issues in what he does. He gets his best players the ball, and that's what football is to me."
Chaney spent this season as Pittsburgh's offensive coordinator and is replacing Brian Schottenheimer, who won't be coaching the Bulldogs in the TaxSlayer Bowl against Penn State. Schottenheimer was hired in January to replace Mike Bobo, who left to become Colorado State's head coach, but the Bulldogs plummeted from averaging 457.8 yards and 41.3 points per game last year to 381.4 and 26.5 this season.
Smart also has tabbed Sam Pittman as offensive line coach and Glenn Schumann as a defensive assistant. Chaney and Pittman worked together at Tennessee in 2012 and the next two seasons at Arkansas.
Pittman worked a third season with the Razorbacks this year, and his departure is not sitting well with Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema. Arkansas linemen showed up on Pittman's doorstep this past weekend in an effort to keep him from leaving.
"I think when you're dealing with 19-, 20- and 21-year-old kids, they're going to be emotional," Bielema told reporters Saturday. "Some were mad, sad, sad then mad. It's a part of the job no one wants to talk about, and Sam, because of the way he recruits and the way he handles people - until this matter - had been very personal."
Smart may have been referencing that when asked Monday about his new line coach.
"Apparently he brings an unbelievable relationship with his players," Smart said. "The common theme you get when you call around about Sam Pittman is how great a person he is and how much he cares about his players and how much his players care for him. Every reference the guy had was amazing."
Arkansas has the largest line in football - college or NFL - this season. The five starting Razorbacks up front total 1,638 pounds, or 327.5 pounds per player.
Smart admits he wants bigger bodies in the Bulldogs' line but stopped short of saying they had to be the biggest in the land.
"It's all relative to what we're going to do offensively, and I want whatever gives us the best chance to be successful," Smart said. "We had success this year against Arkansas, but the year before, when Coach Chaney was there, they had some pretty good success against us. They didn't score a lot, but they had a lot of yardage, and it's been frustrating to defend them.
"I do think big offensive linemen give you the opportunity to have a very sturdy pocket, and they give you a chance to run the ball. You have to do both of those in our league to be successful."
Two existing Bulldogs assistants, running backs coach Thomas Brown and outside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer, helped Smart get started in recruiting and are likely to remain on staff. Smart praised both Brown and Sherrer but stopped short of naming them as official hires.
Smart was scheduled to be back in Tuscaloosa today, where he will finish out his duties as Alabama's defensive coordinator. He will be joined by his successor, Jeremy Pruitt, who was Georgia's defensive coordinator this season before accepting the Alabama job last Friday.
"We're both high school coaches' sons, so we'll probably be sharing an office," Smart said. "We're used to growing up in small places and being around each other, and I don't have any issue with that. I have a great relationship with Jeremy."
Hockman decommits
Bailey Hockman, the No. 3 pro-style quarterback in the 2017 class according to 247Sports.com, announced Monday that he was opening his recruiting process again. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from the Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs had been committed to the Bulldogs since June.
Hockman said via Twitter that he wanted to "make sure that I am at the best place for myself and development as a student-athlete."
The Bulldogs also lost a 2016 commitment Monday when Darion Anderson, a three-star receiver from Warner Robins, reopened his recruitment.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.