Kirby Smart declares 'no streaks matter' ahead of Georgia vs. Alabama matchup

On Saturday, two trends will collide when Alabama marches into Sanford Stadium to square off against Georgia. The Bulldogs have won 33 consecutive games on their home turf. However, they’ve lost six of their last seven games against Alabama.

Evidently, UGA head coach Kirby Smart isn’t particularly concerned with either streak. During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Smart downplayed the importance of history in the outcome of Georgia’s game against Alabama on Saturday.

“I told the team today, ‘No streak matters. Doesn’t matter,'” Smart said. “Everybody wants to talk about how many games we won at our home. People want to talk about our record against Alabama, and you know how much both of them matter in this game? Not one bit. But, it makes a great storyline, right, so you got to take it and run with it.

“It has no bearing on this game. What I talked about was those 55 games that we played against ranked opponents, and what did we learn from those. Like, what lessons have we learned from those that can help us in this? Because, really, those two streaks or those two records don’t matter.”

Georgia has not only won time and time again in Sanford Stadium, it’s done so in convincing fashion. In fact, of Georgia’s 33 consecutive home wins, only three have been one-score games.

Georgia’s last loss at home was six years ago, when South Carolina downed the Bulldogs in double-overtime. Alabama hasn’t played in Athens since 2015. The Crimson Tide ran away with a 38-10 victory. Of course, at that time, Kirby Smart was Alabama’s defensive coordinator.

Smart had a chance to improve his head-coaching record against Alabama last season, the Crimson Tide’s first year with head coach Kalen DeBoer at the helm. Alas, Georgia couldn’t pull off the win, and ultimately fell 41-34 in enemy territory.

Now, Georgia has a chance to return the favor. Smart knows his team can’t solely rely on their home-field advantage in the highly-anticipated showdown.

“The atmosphere helps, the crowd noise helps, being familiar with your surroundings and all that stuff helps,” Smart said on Monday. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to go play football, and it comes down to matchups, it comes down to who blocks and tackles the best, who executes and does things in the key moments of the game. So certainly glad it’s at home, but we’ve still got to play well.”

Georgia and Alabama will clash at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The game will air live on ABC.