Kirby Smart says 2012-15 Alabama teams would ‘beat the dog’ out of modern teams
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Compared to a decade ago in college football, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart says teams are relatively worse today than they were before.
Smart joined The Next Round this week at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am to talk shop. At one point during the interview, he was asked how the Alabama teams he worked on under Nick Saban compared to the teams he encounters as a head coach today. He shook his head and said the talent doesn’t come close.
“Our best Alabama teams — I’m gonna go 2012, 13, 14, 15 — would beat the dog out of all these teams right now,” Smart said. “They could practice different and they were deeper.
“The game has not changed that much from 2012 to 2025, but the roster has. Those (previous Alabama) teams would … just physically beat you. I look at our team now and think, oh man, we don’t have the depth, we’re not as good as we were, and then we go out there and win the SEC.”
Take the 2013 Alabama squad, for instance. Derrick Henry was the Crimson Tide’s third running back, behind TJ Yeldon and Kenyan Drake. Henry, then 6-foot-3 and well over 230 pounds, averaged 10.9 yards per carry as a first-year player and was once again a backup the following season.
With the fluidity of the transfer portal and the money flowing to college football players today, a Derrick Henry-type would not sit and wait multiple seasons for a starting spot.
Not that Justice Haynes is a Henry type, but the former Alabama running back had an opportunity to battle for the starting job in the Crimson Tide backfield heading into the 2025 season. Instead, he transferred to Michigan, where he won the starting job. In January, he entered the transfer portal again and left for a third school in as many years.
Developing talent is hard enough. Retaining that talent year-over-year is a blind dart throw for coaches at this point.
“There’s an Indiana, there’s a Michigan, but relative, [roster talent] is going down,” Smart said. “There’s not as much talent acquisition and as much talent on a team to be able to develop and grow.
“You’re playing younger players. I’ve got kids that would have never played at Georgia when I got there, or at Alabama when I was there, that are having to play now.”
Even still, Georgia is once again the favorite to win the SEC.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
