Nick Saban Details Conversation With Kirby Smart After Title Game

As the adrenaline slowly started to wear off, Nick Saban settled in for his postgame press conference, waiting for the inevitable question.

He and former Alabama assistant Kirby Smart shared a lengthy postgame handshake conversation, and one reporter asked the legendary coach about what was said and his relationship with the Georgia star. Saban shared one thing that may surprise fans—if the Crimson Tide lost the national title, he had a preference on who it would be to.

“If we had to lose a national championship, I’d rather lose one to one of the former assistants who did a great job for us, and has done a great job with his program and his team,” Saban said. “They deserve it; they played great all year. We were the only team to beat them in the SEC championship game. We just couldn’t finish the game tonight like we wanted to.

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“But I think Kirby has done a really, really good job there, I congratulated him on the win. I’m really proud of him, and I’m proud of the way he’s been able to coach his team and the consistency that they’ve played with all year.”

Smart also asked Saban about Jameson Williams, who exited the game early due to an injury. And the Alabama head coach apparently told Smart, “You guys kicked our asses in the fourth quarter. Congrats.”

The national title game may have started out as the battle of the field goals, but it soon turned into a throwing competition in the fourth quarter, eventually being capped off with a championship sealing pick six from Kelee Ringo.

Monday’s win over Alabama marks Georgia football’s first national championship since 1980. Stetson Bennett has gone from a former walk-on quarterback to a national champion, and Smart became the first former Alabama assistant coach under Saban to beat him.