Kirby Smart addresses comparisons between Georgia, Alabama dynasties
Ever since Georgia head coach Kirby Smart put together back-to-back consecutive seasons that resulted in national championship wins, some have speculated that the Bulldogs have now taken the mantle as college football’s premiere school, a title that was unquestionably held by Alabama for multiple years under Nick Saban.
This idea met Smart head-on at SEC spring meetings Tuesday, as he was asked directly of Georgia has surpassed Alabama as college football’s elite program.
“I don’t measure our program based on their program. Our success is based on how we perform. I have the utmost respect for Nick and the Alabama program,” Smart said according to Action Network’s Brett McMurphy.
As most know, Smart worked under Saban for nine seasons before becoming the Bulldogs’ head coach in 2016, but has the former assistant lifted his program up above what Saban has built in Tuscaloosa?
What Smart has done lately is hard to deny, as he’s led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national titles and a 29-1 record in the past two seasons (with that one loss coming from Saban’s Alabama team). But even in just his second season in Athens, he led the Bulldogs to an SEC Championship win and a National Championship appearance.
Saban’s track record on the other hand is hard to deny, boasting 15 SEC West division titles, 10 SEC Championships, and seven national championship wins.
But the Crimson Tide program lately has not quite measured up to the extraordinary standard that Saban has now set. In the last eight seasons, Alabama has only not made it to the national championship game twice, and two of those seasons have been within the last four years.
Smart has some more achievements to add to his resume before it’s up to par with Saban’s. But in regards to which dynasty is at the top of the food chain at the moment, it’s hard to deny that the Bulldogs have the hot hand.
Nick Saban calls to make college football ‘like the NFL’
Alabama head coach Nick Saban has never been afraid to express his opinion on issues facing the college football landscape. At the SEC Spring Meetings, he discussed his thoughts on college football in general, saying it is time to take a professional approach to the sport.
“Unionize it, make it like the NFL,” Saban said, according to Action Network’s Brett McMurphy. “Make it the same for everyone. Everything they do for NFL is to create parity. If they have every team at 8-8 going into final week of the season, the NFL would love it.”
This comes after Saban seemed to take a nonchalance approach to the debate of whether the SEC should have eight or nine conference games every football season.
“Things go into this like TV contracts. I’m sure a lot of those things will factor into it,” Saban said. “I’ve always been in favor of playing all games against Power 5 opponents.”