Blacking out to Kirby Smart’s Alabama Kryptonite
I missed the first quarter blitz that Alabama laid on Georgia at the start of last weekend’s showdown. By the time I finished reading to my kids at bedtime, the Crimson Tide had already washed over the visiting team from Athens in the form of a 21 to nothing lead on the scoreboard. The score at halftime ended up being Alabama with 30 to Georgia’s lone touchdown, a seven-yard run by Trevor Etienne. Think that’s when I tweeted something along the lines of how that scoreboard might have older Georgia fans feeling an awful sense of familiarity.
Fan perspectives in sports are always generational. Born towards the end of the Vince Dooley era, but bred in the decade of Ray Goff and Jim Donnan, my identification with Georgia fan conditioned me to thinking the team loses these kinds of games. Call it a loser mentality, sure. A certain head coach in a visor and a few high-profile quarterbacks in orange Charlie Browned me to death in childhood. Even the Mark Richt era, as good as it was, never quite measured up to the standards set by other top SEC programs or the Vince Dooley era.
What’s crazy about all this is how thin the line between great and legendary can be. Vince Dooley’s overall winning percentage as head coach was 71.5% compared with Mark Richt’s 74%. Within the conference, Dooley’s percentage dips to 69.3% and Richt’s to 69.2%*. The length of tenure permitted Dooley also benefitted his conference championship resume. He coached from 1964 to 1988 and won six SEC titles in that time. The national title did not arrive until 1980. While not winning a national title could be held as a mark against Coach Richt, the main reason for his firing in 2015 was that he hadn’t won an SEC title since 2005. His two conference titles took place in his first five years as head coach, but that early promise stalled over the next decade. A guy named Saban was also hired to coach in Tuscaloosa.
Following the hiring of Nick Saban, Georgia teams coached by Mark Richt only made two more appearances in the SEC Championship Game, losing to LSU in 2011 and Alabama in 2012. Coaching a team in the SEC West, Saban couldn’t exactly be blamed for Georgia’s winning the SEC East only twice in that from his date of hire to 2015, but the proverbial goalposts were forever moved. Richt won those two SEC titles in his first five years at Georgia, well, Saban won two national titles in his first five at Alabama, plus a conference title. Then he kept on winning even as college football transitioned from the BCS to the College Football Playoff and the power conferences unhinged their jaws and grew heavy with bloat. Nothing, however, could derail Saban.
Then came Kirby.
Sprinting up the sidelines and spitting out Go Dawgs at the end of every conversation like it was an Amen, Georgia won an SEC title in Smart’s second year as head coach. Then, in 2021 and 2022, Georgia won back-to-back National Championships. This put Kirby beyond Mark Richt comparisons. Heck, this put Kirby beyond Vince Dooley comparisons. Go Dawgs. This man and his helicopter were the Pope come to Georgia, and the quick narrative to write and adopt was that this former mentee of Saban had become supplanted his mentor. But all this happened with Kirby Smart teams going 1–5 against Nick Saban teams. And now with a loss to Kalen DeBoer the Kirby Smart tally against Alabama is 1–6.
With Georgia down 30 to 7 at the half last weekend, I couldn’t help thinking about the Blackout Game played at Sanford Stadium in 2008. With Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno at the helm, Georgia was the higher ranked team, but by the half, that higher ranked team trailed Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide 31 to 0. By the end of the third quarter, the score was 31 to 10. The final score was 41 to 30. The game was never really within reach for Georgia, and the Mark Richt era was never the same.
A Kirby Smart team will always fight. His teams never rollover. But the way they scrapped and clawed last weekend was still surprising — even shocking. The team trailed Alabama 33 to 15 entering the fourth quarter, so that 67-yard touchdown pass from Carson Beck connected to Dillon Bell almost felt preordained until one remembered how much of an eternity 2:31 is in a college football game. Then Jalen Milroe launched a pass to Ryan Williams — did you know he’s only 17? — and he started spinning and sprinting and spinning and sprinting. Then the lights over Nick Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium blacked out as they had all night for every Alabama touchdown, and Ryan Williams started dirty birding for a church of another order. And any Georgia fan with a memory had to feel somewhat concussed.
After all, while at Georgia, Mark Richt’s record against Alabama was 3–3, if only 1–3 against Nick Saban.
Had to feel proud at the second half effort. But concussed at the history.
*Kirby Smart’s overall winning percentage is 85.5%, and in conference, a ridiculous 86.3%.
