Georgia's Kirby Smart, Miami's Mario Cristobal swap pointed NIL barbs

An event to honor a former University of Florida coach with an award named in honor of Florida's all-time favored coach turned into a roast battle between Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and Miami Hurricanes leader Mario Cristobal Monday night in Gainesville, Florida.

In a relaxed setting where ex-Gators head man Dan Mullen was being honored as the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach Award winner for Mullen's star turn in 2025 at UNLV, Cristobal and Smart commanded the spotlight with their comedic riffs on stae.

"It's a great piece to watch right there what a player like Carson Beck can do with great coaching," Cristobal told the crowd following a highlight-reel of ex-Georgia and ex-Miami quarterback Carson Beck, who played his 2025 season for the Hurricanes after spending all of his career prior to that at Georgia. "You know what I mean? Seriously, let's give it up for Kirby Smart. If it wasn't for all his years of pre-NIL, we wouldn't have NIL right now."

Cristobal even needled Smart with a current Bulldogs player in the audience; Ellis Robinson IV was the Football Writers Association of America's Defensive Freshman of the Year. 

"The Robinson family, great seeing you," Cristobal said. "We leave at 9:30 and we have more than one restaurant in Miami as opposed to Athens, Georgia."

Miami, which did not win the Atlantic Coast Conference title in 2025 but was the last team selected into the 12-team College Football Playoff via at-large bid, eventually made a run to the CFP Championship, where it fell by a score to undefeated national champion Indiana. 

"Certainly appreciate being here. I can go on for a little bit now," Cristobal continued. "You gotta give a guy like Kirby credit; when you have all that time sitting at home watching us play on TV throughout the Playoffs, when you don't take care of business ... but congratulations on the SEC and the championship. That's awesome. We were 5-0 against the SEC; I don't know what you were. Man, I'm in enemy territory, too. ...

"I've never felt so welcome in enemy territory. Except last year at the Swamp; 41-17."

For his part, Smart got in several verbal salvos as well.  

"You gotta be careful around Mario. Sometimes he'll take your players if you know what I mean," said Smart, with a likely reference to the controversy last month surrounding then-Duke quarterback Darian Mensah's decision to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal and land at Miami -- after Mensah had signed a lucrative deal to remain at Duke. "No, I'm just kidding. 

"I was talking to Mario earlier and he came up to me and gave me a Lane Kiffin joke. He and Lane are very similar in a lot of ways, they're like best friends, and he came up to me and said, 'You gotta start getting on some protein shakes; you've had too many carbs, I said, 'Well, you probably ought to spend some time with Steve Spurrier because he won more conference championships at Duke than you have at Miami.' Coach Spurrier and him, they gotta visit some. I don't know why you're over here laughing too, Coach Sumrall (new Florida head coach Jon Sumrall)."

Smart then turned his attention on the hometown program, the Florida Gators. His Georgia squads have dominated the border rivalry since Smart took over at Georgia prior to the 2016 season with an 8-2 mark since that time. 

"I got to ask (Spurrier) a question. Timeout. Is your daughter a realtor, did I hear that right? Is she the best realtor in Gainesville?," Smart asked Spurrier, seated on stage. 

"One of the best," Spurrier replied. 

"OK, Well (gesturing at Sumrall) you're the fourth coach I've played since being at Georgia, so she's getting a lot of money selling houses!," Smart bellowed. "She's going through them!"

Smart then imparted one final zinger.

"Look, I have tremendous respect for this town," Smart deadpanned. "I had no idea how great a basketball town this really was."

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