New era at Alabama is also a new chapter for SEC rival Georgia football under Kirby Smart

Kalen DeBoer may have racked up his more than 100 coaching victories at schools far away from the SEC footprint, but Kirby Smart, like most college football fans, watched the new Alabama coach on the sideline his last game.

The Georgia football coach was in front of his TV watching Washington play Michigan last week for the national championship.

It’s a game that Smart and Georgia won the past two seasons and should be in the mix for years to come as the SEC and the playoff expand and DeBoer settles in at Alabama after a highly successful two seasons at Washington.

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Smart is 94-16 in eight seasons at Georgia.

DeBoer is 104-12 in nine seasons as a head coach.

That includes five seasons at NAIA Sioux Falls.

That shouldn’t diminish what he’s done. After all, Smart started his coaching career as an assistant at NCAA Division II Valdosta State.

Two days after Nick Saban retired as Alabama coach, Smart was on the road recruiting Friday around the state — along with his assistants — on the same day DeBoer was named the Crimson Tide’s new coach.

Smart recruits 365 days a year — or something close to that.

DeBoer steps into an Alabama program that Saban built into college football’s most successful during his 17 seasons.

The South Dakota native who also was head coach at Fresno State and had coaching stops at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan and Indiana needs to recruit at a similar level to Smart and Georgia in what’s now a 16-team SEC.

That already includes recruiting coaches.

Smart plucked veteran SEC assistant Travaris Robinson away from Alabama as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Saturday morning before…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/era-alabama-chapter-sec-rival-090344024.html

Author : Athens Banner-Herald

Publish date : 2024-01-17 09:03:44

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