Until this season, Nick Saban dispatched of former assistants regularly in the middle of rebuilding situations. Then he met Jimbo Fisher in the season opener, and the then-No. 1 Crimson Tide knocked off then-No. 3 Florida State.

That made Saban 11-0 against his former assistants, a group that includes Derek Dooley, Mark Dantonio, Fisher, Jim McElwain and Will Muschamp. Most of the results have been lopsided, as the closest margin was still two touchdowns. In fact, the national championship matchup with Kirby Smart and Georgia might be the closest comparison of rosters for any former assistant taking on a Saban-coached team at Alabama.

It’s difficult to digest a two-touchdown defeat being the best in any list, but that’s the case for McElwain and the 2015 Florida Gators among former assistants to face Saban at Alabama, a 29-15 result. In that game, it appeared as if Florida had control when Antonio Callaway made an 85-yard punt return for a touchdown for a 7-2 lead. But it was short-lived as Alabama outscored Florida 17-8 in the second half.

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One theory, which Saban subscribes to, is that the rosters historically have been a mismatch, as many of the coaches are not only in the first or second season at the opposing school, but they’re trying to change the fortunes in recruiting and direction of the program.

“Well, I don’t think the game is about the coaches,” Saban said on a media teleconference this week. “I think it’s about the players. And I think in most of those games, if the other guy had the players that we had, they might have beat us.

“So it’s not about the coaches. I mean, I didn’t catch any passes. I didn’t make any tackles last night. I didn’t do any of that. I mean, the players did it all.

“You prepare the players the best you can, but we’ve had some pretty good players around here, and most of the guys were going to rebuild programs, so maybe we’re a little bit ahead of them, and if they had our team, they’d have probably beat us.”

Case in point: Dooley’s Tennessee teams were 15-21 in three seasons with a Music City Bowl loss; Muschamp’s Florida teams were 28-21 with a Gator Bowl win and a Sugar Bowl loss. Dooley and the Vols lost to Alabama 41-10, 37-6 and 44-13, while Muschamp and the Gators fell 38-10 and 42-21 to the Crimson Tide.

For his part, Saban doesn’t hold any ill will toward the former assistants.

“You don’t have to dislike someone to compete against them,” Saban said. “I have a lot of respect for the guys that worked for me and the guys that did a great job for us when they worked on our staff. I’m happy to see them doing well wherever they go, and when we have to play against them, I’m sure they’re doing everything they can to beat us for their team and their players, and we’re going to do the same with our players.”

Saban said it’s not personal, and the coaches simply work hard for the players on their team.

For what it’s worth, only Dantonio remains at the school where he coached against Saban; two of them were fired in the past four seasons and one left voluntarily.

That’s what makes Smart and Georgia different, as Saban pointed out, the Bulldogs won 10 games the season Mark Richt was fired and Smart was hired. Richt recruited the seniors who are leading this Georgia team.

Smart was Alabama’s defensive coordinator under Saban from 2008-2015, the last time Alabama won a national title, as well as an assistant on Saban’s staff with the Miami Dolphins and LSU.

The most recent meeting of Saban against a former assistant was in the 2017 season opener against Fisher, a former offensive coordinator under Saban at LSU. That game, a 24-7 result, was supposed to be a preview of the College Football Playoff, as it happened in the same stadium that will host the national title game, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Instead, Alabama knocked FSU QB Deondre Francois out of the game, ending his season and essentially any threat the Seminoles had of contending.

The Crimson Tide shut out Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl at the end of the 2015 season against Dantonio, who worked under Saban at Michigan State during the late 1990s.

However Alabama and Georgia fare on Monday, the record will be updated as defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee will add to the number of meetings. After all, assistants leaving has been nearly as common as Alabama reaching the national title game. This is the third consecutive year that Alabama has played with an outgoing coordinator during a Playoff run.