ATLANTA (AP) — When Kirby Smart returned to his alma mater as head coach, Alabama was the top dog.
Now, the roles are reversed.
The No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs are the two-time defending national champions and haven’t lost a game in nearly two years.
Everyone is chasing them.
Alabama included.
“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best,” Crimson Tide defensive end Justin Eboigbe said. “They’re the best right now, and in order to be what we want to be, we’ve got to go through them.”
The Bulldogs (12-0, No. 1 CFP) will be going for their 30th straight victory and a likely top playoff seed when they face the No. 8 Crimson Tide (11-1, No. 8 CFP) on Saturday in the Southeastern Conference championship game.
Attempting to become the first team in the poll era to win three straight national titles, Georgia was rarely tested during another perfect regular season. The Bulldogs’ average margin of victory was nearly 24 points, with only three games decided by single-digit margins.
When Smart took over at Georgia in 2016, leaving his job as Nick Saban’s defensive coordinator at Alabama, the Crimson Tide were the undisputed king of the SEC.
“I can’t say enough about the tremendous respect I have for him, the job he’s done, how long he’s done it,” Smart said of his former boss. “People don’t really understand how hard it is to be consistently really good, consistently great.”
It took a while for the Bulldogs to take the Tide down.
Smart dropped the first four meetings against Saban, including an overtime loss in the national title game at end of the 2017 season and another setback in the 2021 SEC championship game.
That’s the last time the Bulldogs were on the wrong end of a score.
Smart finally knocked off Saban in a national championship game rematch two seasons ago, and the Georgia coach hasn’t looked back.
“It’s phenomenal what he’s been able to accomplish,” Saban said of his protege. “To win as many games in a row, win a couple championships, have another chance to do it again a third time, I mean, that’s phenomenal.”
