Kirby Smart no longer has to fret about his mentor-turned-nemesis in Tuscaloosa

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Kirby Smart no longer has to worry about his mentor-turned-nemesis in Tuscaloosa. Somewhere, deep in his gut, the Georgia coach might be a bit relieved that Nick Saban is now wearing a mic at the broadcast table rather than a headset on the sideline.

Just don’t expect Smart to come right out and say it.

Deflecting several versions of the same question — essentially, what’s it going to be like to face an Alabama team that’s not coached by Saban? — Smart kept the focus squarely on the two powerhouse programs that will meet Saturday night on Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“No, I don’t expect it to be strange,” Smart said Monday. “That’s just the normal course of progression.”

Still, there’s no getting around the major issue hanging over a rivalry that largely has charted the course of the Southeastern Conference for nearly a decade.

Saban is not a part of it anymore — other than his duties as an analyst for ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which will be on hand in Tuscaloosa as the No. 2 Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0 SEC) face the No. 4 Crimson Tide (3-0, 0-0).

Smart said he’s glad that Saban — who retired in January after winning a record seven national titles, six of them in charge of the Alabama program — seems to be cherishing life after coaching.

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“I’m thrilled that he gets an opportunity to do what he wants to do and be with who he wants to be with within his family and enjoy that,” Smart said. “I’m really happy he’s still part of college football because he makes college football better.”

These two coaches — one now retired, the other in the prime of his career — will be linked forever.

Smart was on Saban’s staff for more than a decade, soaking up every bit of wisdom he could glean from perhaps the greatest coach in college football history.

After the 2015 season, Smart departed Tuscaloosa to take over the good-but-not-quite-great program at his alma mater, quickly pushing the Bulldogs to that next level.

You know, the spot at the top of the conference held by Saban’s Crimson Tide.

Georgia captured the SEC crown in Smart’s second season, only to be defeated in the national title game by Alabama in an overtime thriller.

Saban beat his former assistant three more times — twice with the league championship on the line, another time in a regular season — before Smart finally broke through with a 33-18 victory in the national championship game at the end of the 2021 season.

That was the first of two straight national titles for Smart’s Bulldogs, moving them to the pinnacle of college football’s hierarchy, but it was Saban who delivered the final salvo to his former pupil.

After Georgia breezed through the 2023 regular season at 12-0 and seemed poised for an unprecedented third straight title in the poll era, Alabama pulled off a 27-24 upset in the SEC championship game — a result that knocked the Dawgs out of the four-team playoff.

It was a loss that still stings between the hedges.

“We definitely have a chip on our shoulder,” receiver Arian Smith conceded.

Smart, who has brought a singular focus to the Bulldogs that was a hallmark of Saban’s teams, doesn’t want his players thinking about a game from nine months ago, especially when the Crimson Tide are now coached by Kalen DeBoer.

“I don’t know how similar or different it will be,” Smart said. “We’re a different team. They’re a different team. They’re a different staff. We’re a similar staff. So, I can’t compare last year’s game to this year.”

This will be Smart’s second trip to Tuscaloosa since taking the Georgia job. During the pandemic-plagued 2020 season, the Bulldogs lost 41-24 to an Alabama squad that went on to claim what would be Saban’s final national title.

“You move on,” Smart said. “I think the last time we went (to Tuscaloosa), it was four or five years from the time we had lived there. It’s so weird when you play there because you’re in and out. You’re there and then you’re gone.”

Smart has certainly carved his own dynastic path at Georgia, but he never quite escaped Saban’s shadow. His record against his former boss was 1-5. The Bulldogs have only two losses in their last 51 games — both of them coming to Alabama.

For sure, Saban’s presence still looms over this rivalry. There may be a different guy on the Alabama sideline Saturday night, but many of those taking the field will have ties to the previous coach.

“Well, he recruited a lot of them, and they’re good players,” Smart said of Saban, before catching himself and quickly shifting the focus to the game at hand and not who will — or won’t — be coaching in it.

“Any time you go against a really good team that’s a powerhouse in college football, it’s a challenge,” Smart said, firmly back on message. “I really look at it like this is a hell of an opportunity for our kids, our program, on a national stage.”

He went on a bit longer, but there was no more mention of Saban.

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