Can UGA's Smart End Saban's 21-0 Record Against Former Assistants?
"I taught him everything he knows. But I didn't teach him everything I know."
We have no proof that the above words ever came out of the mouth of Nick Saban when talking about his nine former assistants he has faced as head coaches.
But they certainly could have.
How else to explain one of the more interesting storylines as we move towards Saturday’s blockbuster SEC showdown between No. 2 Alabama (3-0) and No. 3 Georgia (3-0) at Bryant-Denny Stadium (8 p.m., CBS)?
The game will mark the 22nd time that Saban, who is in his 25th season as a college head coach, has met one of his former assistants.
The record in those games?
Teacher 21, Pupil 0.
Here’s the chart that includes his nine former assistants and their respective records against Saban:
Jimbo Fisher (Florida State, Texas A&M)...……4-0
Derek Dooley (Tennessee)…………………..………3-0
Jim McElwain (Colorado St., Florida……..……..3-0
Will Muschamp (Florida, S. Carolina)……..…….3-0
Mark Dantonio (Michigan State)………….………2-0
Jeremy Pruitt (Tennessee)…………………………..2-0
Kirby Smart (Georgia)………………………………….2-0
Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss)……………………………….….1-0
Billy Napier (Louisiana-Lafayette)…………….…..1-0
And understand that a number of these games had more on the line than Saban’s string against former assistants. Three times (2015, 2016, and 2018) the SEC championship was decided. In 2017 Alabama played Georgia for the national championship in Atlanta. Saban won them all.
Which brings us to Kirby Smart, whose team is a slim five-point underdog in Tuscaloosa.
Smart, in his fifth season at Georgia, worked for Saban for 11 years. The two were together for one year at LSU (2004), one year at the Miami Dolphins (2006), and then nine years at Alabama (2007-2015), the last eight years with Smart has defensive coordinator.
Jimbo Fisher won a national championship at Florida State in 2013, but it can be argued that Smart is Saban’s most successful protégé with a 47-12 record that includes three straight SEC East championships, an SEC title (2017) followed by a berth in the national championship game.
And it is clear that with Georgia’s success in recruiting, Smart has replicated Saban’s program better than any of his other former assistants.
On Monday I asked Smart the most important lesson he learned from Saban about program building.
"Focus on the task at hand,” he said in a ZOOM call with reporters. “I thought he was always a master of that, of not really having the highs and lows, the emotional spells of a coach, and was focused on what's important now."
This will be the third meeting between Smart and Saban, who has six national championships (1 at LSU, 5 at Alabama). Smart is trying to deliver Georgia’s first national title since Herschel Walker was a freshman in 1980. And Smart knows that in order to do this, at some point he is going to have to beat Saban.
Or, to quote that noted Western philosopher Ric Flair: "In order to BE the man you gotta BEAT the man."
There is no question that the two previous meetings resulted in the two most devastating losses of Kirby Smart’s career:
Jan. 8, 2018, CFP National Championship game: Georgia led Alabama 13-0 and appeared to have control of the game. But Saban benched his starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts, in favor of freshman Tua Tagovailoa. The left-hander brought the Crimson Tide back to a 20-20 tie and sent the game into overtime. Georgia took a 23-20 lead in overtime. On Alabama’s possession it appeared Tua had made a critical mistake by taking a sack, putting the Tide into a second-and-26 hole. But then Tua secured a spot in Alabama football history by throwing a 41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith for the national championship.
Dec. 1, 2018 SEC Championship game: This time the Alabama quarterback roles were reversed. Georgia had complete control of the game, leading 28-14 in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter Tua was banged up and ineffective so Hurts was put into the game. Hurts threw a 10-yard strike to Jerry Jeudy for a touchdown to tie the game at 28-28 with 5:19 left. Then after an ill-advised fake punt by Georgia, Hurts drove Alabama 52 yards and scored on a 15-yard touchdown run with 1:04 left to win the game, 35-28.
There will not be a trophy on the line come Saturday, but it could be a preview of the SEC championship game, which will be held on Dec. 19 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It could also be the first of three meetings between the two powers.
How?
Let’s say that Alabama wins at home on Saturday. It’s a pretty good bet that, given the state of the SEC West, the Crimson Tide will run the table and get to Atlanta at 10-0. Let’s also say Georgia wins out and is 9-1 when it meets Alabama for the SEC championship. If Georgia wins the game the SEC would have two 10-1 teams in the top four or five with the only loss being to each other. Under that scenario the odds of the SEC getting two teams into the CFP would have to be pretty good.
It happened in 2017 when Georgia, the SEC champion, and 11-1 Alabama both made the playoffs. Georgia and Alabama eventually played for the national championship in—you guessed it—Atlanta.
Now this is not to suggest that all is sweetness and light between Saban and Smart. Recruiting at this level is a ruthless, contact sport and these two men take no prisoners when it comes to acquiring talent. Feelings are going to get ruffled.
And it is an interesting subplot to this game that in the offseason Smart was able to lure Scott Cochran, Saban’s long-time strength coach, to Athens as a special teams coach.
In the final analysis Saban’s 21-0 record against his former assistants is interesting, but not particularly relevant to the task at hand. That’s because Saban is beating EVERYBODY, not just his former assistants. Starting with his second season (2008) Saban is 153-17 overall and 88-11 in the SEC. Only once in that 12-year stretch has he won less than 11 games, that coming in 2010 (10-3). And only once in those 12 years has Saban lost more than two SEC games (6-2 in 2019) in a season.
“Everybody always makes it about the assistants — I always laugh,” Smart said. “I don’t know anybody right now in the last 10 years that’s got a real good record against him … so it’s not something I focus on.”