In February, Georgia‘s Kirby Smart and Miami‘s Mario Cristobal went viral for taking verbal jabs at one another at the annual Spurrier Awards in Gainesville, Florida. Smart jumpstarted the back-and-forth when he insinuated he wasn’t comfortable with Cristobal sitting near Georgia cornerback Ellis Johnson IV.

“They were talking about the 50th birthday party he got and the 50th birthday she got, and it wasn’t quite the same, mama wins out,” Smart said. “We probably sponsored that trip with all the NIL money we spent; that’s a good, safe bet. That’s OK, they deserve it.

“Mario is right behind them. If it was up to him, he would have paid a lot more NIL money. It came down to us, too, so I don’t like you being too close to Mario, you know what I’m saying. He’s still got another year left. You gotta be careful around Mario, sometimes he’ll take your players.”

Cristobal didn’t simply accept the dig. In fact, the Hurricanes’ head man fired back with his own pointed comments.

“It’s a great piece to watch what a player like Carson Beck can do with great coaching,” Cristobal said. “No, seriously, let’s give it up for Kirby Smart. If wasn’t for all his years of pre-NIL, we wouldn’t have NIL right now.

“… You gotta give a guy like Kirby credit. When you have all that time to sit at home watching us play on TV throughout the playoffs, when you don’t take care of business… You know, congratulations on the SEC, the championship, that’s awesome. We were 5-0 against the SEC, I don’t know what you were.”

Naturally, the verbal sparring match spread like wildfire online. While some fans claimed the coaches took their jokes too far, ESPN’s Greg McElroy admitted he loved seeing the two coaches butt heads.

“I love the banter. I thought it was human. It felt real,” McElroy said. “A lot of these coaches now, because of how much money is at stake and what they have to represent, we get a robotic approach to gamesmanship.

“… How many times did Lou Holtz take jabs at the competition? How often did we see Steve Spurrier take jabs at the competition? We never get that anymore. So, wasn’t it kind of refreshing to see some back and forth. Granted, with humor; also, at the same time, a hint of truth as well. It was entertaining, and I hope we get more of it here in the weeks and months to come.”