LOS ANGELES – It’s been the same song for years. It appears when a team’s fans believe it deserves a championship or even wins a big game.
In stadiums. In social networks. In the signs.
“We want ‘Bama.’
It may take time to adjust.
With a win over TCU on Monday night at SoFi Stadium, it’s safe to say Georgia is the new Alabama that recharges every fall, regardless of the number of players it sends to the NFL. The Bulldogs, who have won 16 straight games and 30 of their last 31, will be the first repeat champions since the Crimson Tide in 2011-12.
“They were in Alabama five or six years ago. I think Kirby Smart has surpassed Nick Saban as the best coach in the game,” SEC and college football historian Paul Finebaum told ESPN. “I realize it’s a bite, but it’s also accurate. Kirby Smart consistency [maintained]Dominating is what Nick Saban has been doing for 15 years.
Consider these numbers. In Saban’s first seven years at Alabama, the Crimson Tide went 79-15, winning three national championships and two SEC titles. Smart has a national championship, an 80-15 record and two SEC crowns in his first seven seasons at Georgia. And the 47-year-old Smart was a first-time head coach, adding to the challenge.
Like Saban at Alabama, Smart has had elite recruits ranked sixth or higher in seven consecutive classes, according to 247Sports. His teams are tough, physical and absurdly deep. Last April, Georgia hit a record 15, five in the first round, and the Bulldogs didn’t miss a beat. Only two of their 14 games were decided by one score.
“[Smart] found a way to stay motivated and get chips [their] be mad at the world like the teams that always win [possess]said Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN’s senior football analyst. “It’s special to try to do that. It’s painful. That’s why we don’t see repeat teams very often because you lose a little edge.
Much of the credit goes to Smart, who worked under Saban for 11 years. Of course, there are similarities and differences between the programs and how Saban and Smart run them. No two guys are the same. However, one thing.
“We won a lot,” joked Georgia co-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who coached with Saban at LSU and the Dolphins.
What the two have in common is that they are demanding and look for every little advantage, even if there isn’t one. Saban likes to call all the praise from the players “rat death.” After Georgia rallied against Ohio State in the Peach Bowl, Smart talked about his team overcoming doubters.
“We never come as a program. I think complacency sets in and it can be a disease,” Smart said. “And I’m talking about rights. When you start to feel empowered, this is how the mighty fall.
“We get a lot of business analogies, how do corporations fall in the world we live in, the society we live in, how empires fall and how businesses and corporations fall? You see the decline and we try to learn from their mistakes. And that’s basically denial. Arrogance. You have to be humble or everyone will pick on you, and our kids understand that.
Like Saban, Smart preaches attention to detail, that every little thing counts. It could be a weightlifting session in the spring or a workout in August. He demands the best from his players and is so talented that there is always the risk of being benched. He does more than talk about it. In the end, it was Smart who called a fourth-quarter timeout in the win over Ohio State before the Buckeyes could have saved the game for Georgia on fourth-and-1.
“We have a lot of smart coaches and they put us in the right positions to be successful,” Georgia’s Kenny McIntosh said.
Sounds like something Alabama players have been saying for years. Smart and his players were dubbed the new Alabama. What they have done over the last few years should be the talk. They don’t want to be seen as a new version of their competitors.
“We’re Georgia,” McIntosh said. “We do it the Georgia way, not the Alabama way.”
Either way, with a win Monday night, it will be clear that Smart and Georgia are at the pinnacle of the sport, as is the program that others aspire to. Next year, opposing fans are expected to chant “We want Georgia.”
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