ATHENS — The Nick Saban-Kirby Smart dynamic presents a compelling — and unique — teacher-student story line at the highest level.
The philosophical 72-year-old Alabama head coach is recognized as the greatest coach in modern day college football history with his seven national championships and 10 SEC crowns.
Smart, who served at Saban’s side for a season at LSU and with the Miami Dolphins before a nine-year run at Alabama, is eighty years into his head coaching tenure in Georgia and is the latest challenger for the throne.
Smart’s two-time defending national champion Bulldogs are on the greatest run of the CFP Era riding this 29-game win streak.
Georgia could make college football history if they can get by the Tide in the SEC Championship Game and win an unprecedented third straight unanimous title.
Minnesota accomplished a similar feat from 1934-1936, but the Gophers were playing only 8-game seasons — not 15 — and not all their titles were unanimous.
Saban versus Smart, quite simply, pits the greatest championship dynasty in college football against the greatest run in the sport’s history.
Saban is 4-1 in the head-to-head matchups, but the 47-year-old Smart won the most recent battle in claiming a CFP championship with a 33-18 win over Alabama in Indianapolis two seasons ago.
It had been 40 years since such a unique teacher-mentor battle had taken place in the SEC, and it did not rise to the same level.
That was when former Georgia All-American player Pat Dye coached under Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama (1965-73) before later launching a hall of fame coaching career at Auburn.
Dye, however, only got to coach against his mentor twice, losing 28-17 to Bryant and Alabama in 1981 before winning 23-22 in 1982, snapping what had been a nine-game win streak in the Iron Bowl.
RELATED: Remembering Pat Dye, comparisons to Kirby Smart, and his final interview with DawgNation
Smart, like Dye, was hired to derail an Alabama dynasty and appears on the brink of doing just that.
Still, there is mutual admiration between the 47-year-old Smart and Saban, who speak of one another in glowing terms.
“I hired Kirby when he was really, really young,” Saban said, reflecting back to hiring Smart at LSU on Will Muschamp’s recommendation in 2004.
“He was a position coach and did a great job as a position coach. We elevated him to be the coordinator (at Alabama in 2008) .. I knew he’d be an outstanding head coach someday.”
Indeed, and now Saban describe’s Smart’s accomplishments as “phenomenal,” marveling over an SEC-record 29-game win streak that eclipsed the 26 in a row Saban won at Alabama in 2015-16.
Smart shows up at SEC Media Day each summer to discuss his own team, but he ultimately ends up sharing praise and thanks for Saban, who was known for pushing all staff members.
RELATED: Nick Saban was very hard on Kirby Smart at Alabama
“A lot of respect for Nick and the things I learned from him,” Smart said last summer, “and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him as an assistant coach.”
Smart elaborated on his respect for Saban this week, referencing the staying power his mentor has exhibited even as the game has changed around him.
“I can’t say enough about the tremendous respect I have for him, the job he’s done, how long he’s done it,” Smart said this week.
“People don’t really understand how hard it is to be consistently really good, consistently great. He’s accomplished that at the highest level to me. Our conference is certainly really tough and hard. He’s done it for every year he’s been there besides maybe the first.”
Smart learned a great deal from Saban, no doubt, but he also took much from his father, high school coach Sonny Smart, and the exposure he had working under Chris Hatcher at Valdosta State along with hall of famers Bobby Bowden and Mark Richt.
An Alabama media member attended a Georgia press conference earlier this week and commented that “Kirby does everything like Nick,” drawing quiet smiles from UGA reporters who have noted all the changes to the game since 2016, when Smart took over the Georgia program.
There was no training for Smart under Saban for roster management, the transfer portal or balancing a locker room amid NIL dealings.
Indeed, it is Alabama playing with two transfers out of Smart’s program -- not the other way around -- and it is Smart who holds the win streak record along with the unmatched feat of going 8-0 in SEC three straight times in divisional play.
Both Georgia and Alabama bring an impressive list of accomplishments into the game on Saturday.
In addition to their 29-game win streak, the Bulldogs ….
• Set a an SEC record for consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll; 2nd All Time (22) behind USC (33)
• Set school record of 39 straight regular season victories dating back to 31-24 win over Mississippi State Nov. 21, 2020 — longest streak in the FBS.
• Has won 27 regular season SEC games in a row dating to 31-24 win over Mississippi State, a school and SEC record-tying mark for consecutive league wins.
• Have set a school record with 25 home wins in a row, which leads the nation.
Alabama, under Saban has …
• Won 16 straight games in Atlanta and never lost in Mercedes-Benz Stadium
• Gone 30-3 against former assistant coaches, including a 4-1 mark vs. Smart
• Beaten No. 1-ranked teams seven times, including topping a No. 1-ranked Georgia in the 2021 SEC Championship Game by a 41-24 count
• made more appearances on College GameDay since Saban was hired in 2007 (48) than any program, Georgia and LSU tied for second in the SEC with 26 in that time frame.
