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For the seventh time as Georgia football coach, Kirby Smart is preparing to take his team to battle against Alabama, the college game’s standard bearer that his program has caught up to in its winning ways.
This time is different because Kalen DeBoer will be on the Alabama sideline Saturday night as head coach wearing a headset in his first SEC game.
Nick Saban, who won 11 SEC titles and six national championships in 17 seasons at Alabama, stunned the college football world on Jan. 10 when he announced he was retiring.
Smart said the next day he was “a little shocked when it came about.”
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart on Nick Saban’s presence Saturday
Now, eight and a half months later, he’s not viewing going up against an Alabama team without Saban as something like a trip into the Twilight Zone.
“No, I don’t expect it to be strange,” said Smart, who spent nine seasons under Saban at Alabama and worked with him at LSU and the Miami Dolphins. “That’s just the normal course of progression.”
Saban’s presence will be felt more than just the fact that the place Georgia will be playing in on Saturday night for the prime-time game is now Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium and that the 72-year-old Saban will be on scene as an ESPN analyst.
Saban’s imprint on Alabama remains in another way.
“Well, he recruited a lot of them, and they’re good players, you know, and I think any time you go against a really good team that’s a powerhouse in college football, it’s a challenge,” Smart said.
Despite roster turnover after the coaching change, Alabama is ranked No. 1, just ahead of Georgia, in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite.
“To me, it’s still Alabama,” Georgia inside linebacker Smael Mondon said. “It’s still like a really talented team. Got a lot of athletes on their roster. They’re still big,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/georgia-football-coach-kirby-smart-080425314.html
Author : Athens Banner-Herald
Publish date : 2024-09-25 08:04:25
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