Kirby Smart Conquered Alabama as Georgia Reclaimed Its Place Atop the SEC and the National Title Chase

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Kirby Smart went sprinting across the Bryant-Denny Stadium grass, toward the stadium corner where Georgia fans were going wild. They cheered louder at the sight of their hero coach. The Alabama majority, still enraged by the game’s outcome, thundered boos.

Georgia fans chant Kirby Smart's name after taking down Alabama 🗣 pic.twitter.com/un1TiPYyML
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) October 11, 2026

On a night that was surprisingly mild from a weather standpoint, with Hurricane Isaias coming up small in terms of game impact, the storms were emotional.

Smart took off his white visor and waved it. He urged the red-and-back faithful to cheer a little more. Having sufficiently poked the bear—or The Bear’s old school—he then turned and ran back toward his team’s locker room, past some debris thrown on the field. It was nothing like the bombardment of small plastic liquor bottles that came out of the south stands here the last time Georgia won at Alabama, in 2007, but it was a clear sign that the Bulldogs were back in the business of infuriating the Crimson Tide in their own backyard.

On another jagged-edge night in the Southeastern Conference, Smart checked off the last box on his remarkable résumé—he beat Alabama in a regular-season game. He’d previously beaten the Tide with a national title on the line, in January 2022, and in the SEC title game last year. But he’d also lost plenty to the Tide, seven times in all, including twice in this stadium.

Now the last houndstooth demon is dead, which might explain the postgame jubilation he displayed.

And after this 20–17 triumph, Georgia is the last remaining undefeated team in the SEC, on its way to No. 1 in the polls and halfway toward yet another College Football Playoff berth. Everyone else in the league has been mowed down.

Erstwhile No. 1 Texas was shocked by unranked rival Oklahoma on Saturday. Florida came into October unbeaten and has now been routed twice in a row, most recently by a South Carolina team that was 0–3 in the league. LSU began the season ranked 11th and has lost twice. Texas A&M started out No. 8 and has lost three times.

“Humility is a week away,” Smart warned, but it’s rarely true of his team.

Georgia remains the standard. Absurd stuff happens to someone else, not the Dawgs. They’re 71–7 over the last 5 ½ seasons, with two national championships and three SEC titles.

Alabama had been the standard under Nick Saban. In the Tide’s third season under Kalen DeBoer, this game set up his arrival as the new Bama boss of the league. His team was explosive and appeared complete—but Georgia has a way of exposing any flaws, no matter how small.

Like so many other recent meetings between these two, it was a play-here, play-there kind of game. Or a call-here, call-there kind of game. The no-call that roiled the guts of the Alabama faithful came on the Tide’s last possession, a Keelon Russell deep pass for Rico Scott in the end zone wound up incomplete after Georgia safety KJ Bolden ran Scott over.

On the next play, third-and-10 from the Alabama 34, Russell was sacked to knock Alabama out of tying field goal range. Bama punted, and from there, Georgia ran out the clock. It was aided greatly by a deadball personal foul on defensive back Dijon Lee Jr.

In so many ways, this victory was a monument to what Smart has built—a ferociously physical team, a balanced team, a complementary team, a deep team. The Bulldogs are banged up, but it didn’t matter—third-string running back Dwight “Peanut” Phillips Jr. stepped up to rush for a career-high 120 yards, powering a running game that gashed the Tide’s ninth-ranked rushing defense for 206 altogether. The Bulldogs had the less touted quarterback, but it didn’t matter—Gunner Stockton, as reliable as the vintage F-150 pickup he drives, threw for more yards (249 to 185) and produced more touchdowns (two to one) than Heisman Trophy candidate Russell. The Bulldogs missed a field goal and kept being flagged for holding, but it didn’t matter—they also sacked Russell four times and knocked Bama star receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams out of the game with a big hit by Bolden.

“At the end of the day, our quarterback played well enough for us to win,” Smart said. “We scored enough points to win. But it was a really extremely physical football game, and I have a lot of respect for Alabama.”

The respect flowed both ways. Russell waited around after the game while Stockton was being interviewed to congratulate him. Both quarterbacks lavished praise on each other.

“Guy’s a baller,” Russell said of Stockton.

“He was awesome,” Stockton said of Russell.

While Stockton is the proven commodity, now in his second season as the Georgia starter, sophomore Russell is the guy with lightning in his arm and his legs. He just has to keep harnessing all that talent and turn it into a few more winning plays. Stockton has a really good handle on doing that.

“The SEC’s full of really good quarterbacks,” Smart said. “So why do we rate them? Do we rate them by rings? We rate pretty good then.”

Russell heaped blame upon himself for the Alabama loss, saying he missed “countless throws.” That’s an exaggeration, but there were times when he didn’t set his and missed receiving targets.

“I’ve got to do a better job with commanding the offense and taking over my role,” Russell said. “As an offensive commander, I’ve got to do my job.”

It would not be a surprise at all to see a second annual two-game series between Alabama and Georgia. The Tide won in the regular season last year before being dominated in the SEC title game. They could be on a collision course in Atlanta again this December, in what might be the last league championship game of its kind.

If a 24-team College Football Playoff arrives next year, as is widely anticipated, conference title games will go away. So will a lot of the juice from games like this one. Both teams remain perfectly viable to make the 12-team playoff, just as they did last season—but this loss shrinks Alabama’s margin for error. With a 24-team field, this result would barely register in terms of who is in and who is out.

Right here and right now, Georgia’s win mattered a lot to its coach. He checked the last Bama box, and he made sure to celebrate it in front of everyone.

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