Kirby Smart praises Nick Saban ahead of SEC Championship: 'I can't talk enough about the respect I have for him'
Kirby Smart and Nick Saban will meet in the SEC Championship Game for the 4th time on Saturday as Georgia faces Alabama.
While the Bulldogs won the last meeting between the 2 teams — a 33-18 victory in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship Game — they’ve never beaten the Crimson Tide in a conference championship tilt. Nevertheless, the Dawgs — on a 29-game winning streak and having taken the past 2 national titles — are the current standard-bearers in the sport.
And Smart, who was Saban’s defensive coordinator before taking the reins in Athens, had a front-row seat to his former boss’s success in Tuscaloosa, winning 4 titles while on the Tide staff.
“I can’t talk enough about the respect I have for him and the consistency he’s done this,” Smart said on Sunday. “He’s evolved with the times in how he does things.”
Per the SEC’s Chuck Dunlap, it’s only the 2nd time the SEC Championship Game has featured a pair of teams with perfect marks in conference play. It previously happened in 2009, when Saban and Alabama defeated Florida 31-13 en route to a BCS National Championship.