Kirby Smart’s Bama bugaboos exist, but he’ll have no excuse if they exist on Saturday
Published:
He wasn’t ready for the Tua Tagovailoa substitution in Part I, and then he wasn’t ready for the Jalen Hurts substitution in Part II. He had his initial 4th-string quarterback playing on the road against a flawless Alabama team in Part III. He already had a Playoff berth locked up and didn’t have motivation in Part IV. He finally conquered the beast in Part V. He couldn’t make the right adjustments against the G.O.A.T., who was seemingly invincible in that building, including in Part VI. He had an inconsistent team who couldn’t go on the road overcome a disastrous first half in Part VII, AKA the first Alabama–Georgia game without the G.O.A.T.
If you want, you can make excuses for Kirby Smart‘s Alabama losses over the years. Break down each game individually and you’ll perhaps find a way to rationalize why the best coach in the sport has a 1-6 mark against Alabama and a 107-13 mark against everyone else.
Cool. That rationalizing is done.
Saturday night in Athens is a no-excuses game for Smart. I could argue it’s as much of a “no-excuses game” as any of those previous 7 matchups against Alabama. Nick Saban isn’t walking through that door without a private jet ride from State College to Athens (which he might have) and a ticket (which he also might have). But at the very least, Smart’s bugaboo won’t be on that Alabama sideline with a say in what transpires between the lines come Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Well, let’s check that. Smart’s bugaboo, if he loses this game, will be the Alabama logo more than Saban itself. Falling to 0-2 against Kalen DeBoer would make that a fair statement, especially with the history (recent and distant) that’s at stake.
I’m not sure if you’ve heard this, but Georgia hasn’t hosted Alabama during Smart’s tenure in Athens. That’s 10 years since these teams last met in Sanford Stadium, yet as fate/the scheduling gods would have it, they’ve still played 7 times from 2016-24. Yeah, they’ve met in Indianapolis but not in Athens.
Stop me if you’ve heard this, too, but Georgia hasn’t lost at home in the 2020s.
Sanford Stadium been the ultimate no-excuses building
And just in case that wasn’t enough history, Georgia hasn’t lost at home at night since 2009. That is, the first Barack Obama administration.
We haven’t even gotten to the part where we discuss how Alabama is 2-5 away from Tuscaloosa in the DeBoer era, nor have we discussed the fact that after losing in blowout fashion in Week 1 at Florida State, the Tide are 2 weeks removed from playing a game with their worst AP Poll ranking (No. 21) since the 2008 season opener. Maybe that’s ancient history and blowout wins against the likes of Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin will prove to be a sign that the Tide righted the ship. Perhaps Alabama’s biggest perceived strength (its receivers) against Georgia’s biggest perceived weakness (its secondary) will tip the scales in the visitors’ favor.
Don’t care. That shouldn’t rationalize a Georgia loss on Saturday night.
A Georgia loss shouldn’t also be rationalized with the excuse of “well, in the expanded Playoff … .” Nope. Don’t care about that, either.
This game matters, even if Georgia can get into the Playoff after losing to Alabama, just as it played out last year. Don’t let the changing ways of this sport tell you that this is just another game on that schedule. Nobody will have to have to tell the 93,000 fans in Sanford Stadium those things, plenty of whom remember all too well what happened in 2008. You know, that other Sanford Stadium Blackout against Alabama.
(It remains ironic that Smart was the Year 1 defensive coordinator who helped Alabama make that loud statement in Athens.)
Sorry, Georgia fans. You didn’t need a reminder of that, nor did you need me to remind you that Georgia hasn’t beaten Alabama in Sanford Stadium since 2003. Of course, they’ve only played each other in Sanford Stadium in 2 of their 11 visits since then, but I digress. You get it.
This is 2 decades of angst. Sure, a whole lot of those demons were exorcised by beating Alabama to win a national title in 2021. Nobody is taking that away from Smart. If that number were still at “0” instead of “1,” we’re having different conversations about what Saturday night means.
It still means a lot for Smart and Georgia because when you’re the gold standard, you’re not supposed to have a bugaboo that’s so pronounced. It doesn’t mean the expectation is to be perfect, but the expectation for the best coach in the sport and the gold standard program in the sport is to be bugaboo-free. Alabama’s “bugaboo” under Nick Saban was playing at Jordan-Hare Stadium … where Saban still went 5-4.
Smart might not coach long enough to turn a 1-6 mark against Alabama into a winning record, but now feels like as good a time as any to take a step in that direction. Handing Alabama a second pre-October loss for the first time since Year 1 of the Saban era in 2007 — a feat that UGA contributed to with some late Matthew Stafford heroics in Tuscaloosa — would be a statement, no matter how many style points Georgia gets in the process.
Alternatively, allowing the DeBoer-led Tide to come into Sanford Stadium and walk out with a win would feel like the ultimate sign that Alabama still has Smart’s number. Smart doesn’t have to say it publicly, but he knows that reality would be tough to stomach. It would loom.
He’s got the power to change that, and he certainly doesn’t have any excuses.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
