Hit rewind to 365 days ago.

The date was Nov. 28. Alabama was 3 days removed from losing the Iron Bowl after being held to 14 points. Debate was swirling about whether a 1-loss Alabama team without a conference championship was going to be Playoff-worthy. Many argued that Alabama didn’t have the résumé to make the Playoff and that 2-loss conference champ Ohio State was more worthy of getting a chance to play for a national title.

Better yet, hit rewind to 362 days ago.

That was the day that Georgia hoisted the SEC Championship trophy after throttling Auburn while Alabama sat idle, waiting to hear about its Playoff fate.

A question that was being asked throughout 2017 by anyone with a college football voice resurfaced.

“Did Kirby Smart just expedite this passing-of-the-torch narrative with Nick Saban?”

It wasn’t just that Georgia imposed its will in Alabama-like fashion. It was that the Dawgs were recruiting like Alabama while Alabama was recruiting like … not Alabama. The Tide’s streak of No. 1 recruiting classes that began at the beginning of the decade was on its way to ending at the hands of the Dawgs. Alabama was old, and Georgia was new. Saban was 66 and Smart was 41.

It wasn’t crazy to suggest that it was Georgia’s turn to run the SEC and that Alabama would cease control of its status as the ultimate college football juggernaut.

Well, in hindsight, that seems crazy.

In the past 365 days, Alabama hasn’t lost. All Saban did after that hypothetical question was posed was beat a pair of top-3 teams en route to a national title and respond by recording arguably the most dominant regular season we’ve seen in the 21st century.

Oh, and Alabama’s 2019 recruiting class is ranked No. 1 a month before the Early Signing Period begins.

Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

This is all worth bringing up heading into Saturday’s rematch in Atlanta (though with a different trophy at stake). Georgia has essentially repeated what it did to reach this point last year. The Dawgs are actually ranked 2 spots higher than they were heading into last year’s SEC Championship, yet nobody is repeating last year’s narrative because Alabama is nearly a 2-touchdown favorite against Georgia.

Even for the Tide, it’s amazing to think about how much has changed in a year.

And obviously those changes are largely a product of the revamped offense, which looks like a third cousin of last year’s group. Tua Tagovailoa is at the center of that, but the success of Alabama’s young wideouts after struggling with Jalen Hurts in 2017 has been significant. None of Alabama’s top 5 pass-catchers this year averaged more than 1 catch or 20 yards per game last year. That’s also a credit to Mike Locksley, who is leading the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense in his first year as Alabama offensive coordinator.

It seems like a lifetime ago when Alabama couldn’t throw or score against quality teams. Remember when Alabama averaged 24 points and didn’t score more than 31 points against Power 5 teams with winning records last year? In such matchups this year, Alabama is averaging 38 points having exceeded 31 points 3 times, including the 52-point beatdown in the Iron Bowl last week (that’s before any postseason games this year). And honestly, it could be more if Tagovailoa had to throw a fourth-quarter pass.

The passing game that was once Alabama’s biggest weakness now looks like a historically good strength. That won’t change as long as Tagovailoa is at Alabama. Maybe that won’t change as long as one of the Tagovailoa brothers are running the show in Tuscaloosa.

With the elder Tagovailoa, Alabama has transformed into what looks like a college football super team. A group that’s even more unfair than the dominant 2016 squad still has to win SEC and national titles to prove that narrative true, but it’s clear that the narrative of Alabama stepping aside for Georgia is gone in a years time. Or at the very least, it’s on hold.

Georgia will do everything in its power to bring that narrative back on Saturday, though Alabama could already have its Playoff ticket punched.

Ironically enough, if you break down Alabama’s 14 consecutive wins after the 2017 Iron Bowl, Georgia was the only team to stay within 3 scores. Of course, that was only 1 half of Tagovailoa. He outscored Georgia 26-10 after taking over in the second half of last year’s title game.

But man, the halftime takes about Smart passing Saban were everywhere that night, and understandably so. What a fitting way it would’ve been for Saban to finally fall to someone in his coaching tree.

Who knows if anything that happens this year’s matchup will allow that thought to creep into anyone’s mind. All signs point to the Tide rolling through Atlanta, and it wouldn’t suggest that Georgia is anything but a juggernaut in its own right.

A lot has changed in a year. Some would just make the argument that a lot changed in a month when the Tide went from idle, Playoff-hopeful team to national champs, and that it’s simply business as usual for the top-ranked team from start to finish in the 2018 regular season.

After all, nobody is surprised when Alabama is ranked No. 1 anymore. The surprise comes when Alabama loses a regular season game. That’s why nobody is calling 2018 a surprise.

But if you can’t see how drastically the Alabama narrative has shifted in the past 365 days, you need to hit rewind.