Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Backs against the wall after what would have been the greatest collapse in a game involving top-5 teams, Alabama called upon the youngest players on the entire field to deliver two resounding counter punches against the second-biggest bullies on the block in the past decade.

Et tu, Georgia.

Saturday night in Bryant-Denny Stadium was a heavyweight title fight in the truest sense. Not since Ali and Frazier threw hands in Manila have two entities as rich in lineage, talent and moxie delivered the kind of football that anyone who saw it will remember for a long, long time.

Final score: No. 4 Alabama 41, No. 2 Georgia 34.

But that doesn’t even scratch the surface of storyline on a cool early-fall night in Tuscaloosa. In front of a frenzied 100,000-plus that included former President Donald Trump, Alabama leapt out to a ridiculous 30-7 first half lead and then had to somehow engineer a late comeback to hold on by their pinky fingernails.

In an instant gratification world that breathlessly anoints “Game of the Century” titles seemingly every other week, this was a bona fide instant classic.

Through the first 30 minutes, it was legitimately all Alabama. Quarterback Jalen Milroe sliced and diced the Bulldogs for 199 passing yards, 106 rushing yards and a 30-7 advantage that might have had barstool-sitting observers in Iowa wandering their eyes elsewhere.

This was prime Joyless Murderball, the likes of which Alabama made its bones on under former coach Nick Saban. It evoked memories of Georgia’s instantly forgettable “Black Out” game against Alabama in at Sanford Stadium in 2008 – a game that saw the Tide undress the home team between its own hedges so deftly that Georgia didn’t unpack those black uniform tops again for another dozen years.

“We have had no answer for Milroe,” said Georgia coach Kirby Smart at halftime, which was also a remarkable – and true – statement from a coach who was 1-5 against Saban and is now 0-1 against new Tide coach Kalen DeBoer.

But just when you thought Georgia was ready to tuck tail and head back to Athens with its 42-game regular season winning streak up in the vapors, the Bulldogs woke up. Quarterback Carson Beck, who was seeing ghosts all over Bryant-Denny Stadium, suddenly got 20/20 field vision – throwing 3 touchdown passes in the final 30 minutes to guide his team out of the darkness.

A 12-yard Beck TD dart to Arian Smith in the 3rd quarter made the Tide faithful think “OK, at least they’re trying.” And when Beck hit Lawson Luckie for an 8-yard score with 9:46 to play to make it 33-21, the thought had to be “OK, kid, enough’s enough.”

But as Milroe and Alabama were sputtering, Beck and Georgia were gulping methanol and galloping up and down Saban Field. Dillon Bell’s 3-yard touchdown run with 5:39 remaining drew the Dawgs to within 5 points. And Bell then somehow got open behind the Tide secondary for a 67-yard TD reception with 2:21 left to make it 34-33 Georgia.

That lead? It lasted precisely 13 seconds.

His team absorbing all of Georgia’s best punches and now behind on the judges’ scorecards, it was time for Alabama’s youngest player on the field to make his presence felt. Just 17 years old but with the precociousness of youth on his side, Ryan “Hollywood” Williams hauled in an electrifying 75-yard touchdown pass from Milroe – a play that saw him literally twist two Bulldogs defenders into such knots that they ran into each other at one point trying to lay lands on him.

Williams, though, wasn’t the only freshman to make the difference in the end for the Tide. Cornerback Zabien Brown, who along with the rest of the Tide defense was getting singed for most of the game’s second 30 minutes, stepped in front of a Beck pass in the end zone for the game-clinching turnover that also avoided several thousand implanted defibrillators from being necessary all across Alabama.

“We knew we would get that push back by them, but our guys came back with a little firepower of our own to make the plays when we needed them the most,” DeBoer said postgame as the entire Tide Nation exhaled.

“The biggest thing we have on our team is grit, determination and commitment from everyone on our team,” Milroe added as “Yea Alabama” echoed through the night. “We have trust in one another, trust in our training. We just kept attacking.”

The victim, once again, was the stout guy under the visor on the far sideline. At this rate, Smart had to be wondering to himself on the silent flight back home to Athens exactly what path to college football’s summit he has to navigate to solve Alabama 2.0.

In addition to one of the more thrilling games in recent memory, Saturday night was affirmation for Alabama. Affirmation that athletic director Greg Byrne made the right move snatching up DeBoer from Washington. Affirmation that the Southeastern Conference still runs through Tuscaloosa. Affirmation that Saban’s legacy – for at least one more year – will not go quietly into the good night.

Yes, this was one game, humbling as it was for the Bulldogs in the end. Yes, it is still September and just Week 4. And yes, Georgia very much both in the SEC championship game picture and in the College Football Playoff conversation.

No, Alabama didn’t win anything but a September conference game. No, Alabama won’t be thrilled with its second-half letdown on both sides of the ball. And no, DeBoer won’t be posing for another bronze statue to match the ones of Wade, Thomas, Bryant, Stallings and Saban anytime soon.

But for 60 minutes on one of college football’s most hallowed grounds, a statement was very clearly made by the home team. In the opening stanza of the DeBoer Era, the Alabama Crimson Tide has not receded one single inch in the national consciousness.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.