Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban made a habit out of beating Kirby Smart’s Georgia team. From the 2018 national championship win over the Bulldogs to Saban’s last win as a collegiate coach in the 2023 SEC championship, Smart never truly got the edge over his former boss on the football field.
Saban finished 5-1 against Smart’s Bulldogs, with the only loss coming in the 2022 national championship game in which the Crimson Tide was missing its two best receivers, Jameson Williams and John Metchie, both of whom had torn their ACL.
Current head coach Kalen DeBoer is now looking to continue Saban’s success as he enters his first matchup against Smart and the Bulldogs, but to do that, he must focus on four key things.
Limiting turnovers offensively
There’s great value in protecting the football. A turnover is worth about 5 points on average when factoring in field position lost by the offense and gained by the defense, according to Football Study Hall.
That can make all the difference in a tight game. When the Crimson Tide beat Georgia 27-24 in the 2023 SEC championship, the team had zero turnovers.
Ahead of last season’s matchup, quarterback Jalen Milroe emphasized not helping Georgia by making sure to give their offense and quarterback Carson Beck a short field to work with.
“He talked on the sideline before we all came out,” former UA running back Roydell Williams said of Milroe at the time. “He was just like, ‘Protect the football. I’ve got your back, you’ve got mine, we all got each other.’ That was that.”
Due to this emphasis, Beck and the Bulldogs seldom had great field position, and they lost the game even though they had more yards on offense than Alabama.
The 2021 SEC championship saw a similar story. The Crimson Tide had zero turnovers and won comfortably 41-24, even with Georgia having 449 yards of total offense.
Creating turnovers defensively
Turnovers can be the difference in close ball games, and they can also be huge momentum boosters.
In the first meeting between Saban and Smart in the 2018 national championship game, the Bulldogs were up 20-7 and had the ball with the chance to make it a three-score game when defensive lineman Raekwon Davis got a well-timed interception to give the Crimson Tide offense the ball back. Alabama went on to win 26-23. Just before the interception was thrown, Georgia had a 93% ESPN win probability and was in field goal position.
Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has stressed before how important creating turnovers is.
“For us on defense, taking the ball away is a huge opportunity for us,” Wommack said in an interview with Touchdown Alabama over the summer. “It is a huge point of emphasis. When you can take the ball away from people every single opportunity on the field, it is looked at through a different lens.”
In Saban’s five wins over Georgia, the team created eight turnovers defensively. Georgia, on the other hand, only created four.
Productive quarterback play
A theme from Saban’s wins against Georgia was strong quarterback play. Alabama will need Milroe to throw the ball effectively and efficiently against the Bulldog defense.
The 2018 national championship game against the Bulldogs saw Alabama down 13-0 at halftime, with starting quarterback Jalen Hurts having only completed 3 of 8 passes for 21 yards.
Saban knew the quarterback play had to be better, so he made the decision to bench Hurts and put in backup Tua Tagovailoa for the second half. Tagovailoa led the offense to 26 points and a national championship victory.
“We needed a spark on offense,” Saban said of the decision.
In Saban’s five wins over Smart’s Bulldogs, the Alabama quarterbacks averaged 292.6 yards passing and in total had 16 total touchdowns to only four interceptions.
Through his first three games of this season, Milroe has accumulated 14 total touchdowns and has not thrown an interception. The Crimson Tide will hope Milroe can continue his excellent start to the season against Georgia.
Good offensive line play
Time will be needed for the passing game to develop, and the offensive line will need to create holes for the running backs to dash through.
After the Crimson Tide’s 41-24 defeat of Georgia in the 2021 SEC championship, quarterback Bryce Young made sure to give credit to the offensive line for the zero-sack performance against Georgia’s defensive line that had three future NFL players. Young also emphasized the group’s importance to the team.
“All the success that we have offensively, it always starts up front,” Young said after the game. “Whether it’s the run game, the pass game, whatever it is, nothing starts without our O-line. They did an amazing job today.”
Georgia’s defense in 2021 only gave up 2.6 yards per attempt, but the Crimson Tide offense rushed for 4.4 yards per attempt during the game, the most any team had against the Bulldogs the entire season.
With a healthy offensive line of Kadyn Proctor, Tyler Booker, Parker Brailsford, Jaeden Roberts and Elijah Pritchett in place, the Crimson Tide appears to be well-positioned for its first major test of the season against Georgia’s defensive front.
The group started for the first time together in Week 3 and only allowed one sack against Wisconsin before backups came in during the fourth quarter. They helped elevate the rushing game to 181 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
This game will be DeBoer’s major test as Alabama’s coach. All eyes will be on the game this Saturday to see if he can carry over these four traits Saban used to help beat Smart’s Bulldogs. If he can, the Crimson Tide will find itself in an excellent position.
