ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

Two of the best young coaches in the SEC, not to mention two good friends, will be on opposite sidelines Saturday night (ESPN, 7:45 p.m. ET) when Alabama and South Carolina meet in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Kirby Smart, Alabama’s defensive coordinator and secondary coach, and Shane Beamer, South Carolina’s safeties coach, special teams coordinator and recruiting coordinator, have been buddies since they started out in the business as graduate assistants.

Smart was a GA at Florida State in 2002-03 about the same time Beamer was a GA at Tennessee. Beamer had also spent a year at Georgia Tech before joining the Vols' staff.

They got to know each other even better on the recruiting trail when Smart went to LSU in 2004 and Beamer went to Mississippi State. They recruited some of the same territories and became fast friends.

So much so that they’ve vacationed together with their families. Their wives have also become friends, and they even played Augusta National together this past year.

There’s no word on who shot the lowest score or if anybody shanked a ball into Rae's Creek.

They're both in their early 30s and will undoubtedly be candidates for head coaching jobs down the road.

Beamer was named one of the country’s top 25 recruiters earlier this year by ESPN.com recruiting analyst JC Shurburtt. He’s the son of Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, but has made his own way in the coaching profession, working under the likes of Steve Spurrier, Phillip Fulmer, and Sylvester Croom.

Smart, a former All-SEC defensive back at Georgia, is one of the youngest defensive coordinators in the country. He worked under Nick Saban initially in 2004 as defensive backs coach before joining the Georgia staff in 2005 as running backs coach. Smart went back to work for Saban in 2006 with the Miami Dolphins and has been with him all three seasons in Alabama.

There’s sure to be some schools that come after Smart following this season to be their defensive coordinator. You already hear his name prominently at Florida State and Georgia should there be any movement on those staffs.

But I wouldn’t look for Smart to leave Saban any time soon. That is, unless somebody comes after him as a head coach.