ATHENS – The latest “Game of the Century” — of which there are about three per season in college football — will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night in Tuscaloosa between No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama.
As the Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0 SEC) prepare to navigate Hurricane Helene to get there, there are two schools of thought regarding what’s at stake: One, with this being the first year of the 12-team playoff, the outcome is largely inconsequential. Two, the future of both programs hangs in the balance.
The reality rests somewhere in between.
Victor and subjugate both will live to fight another day with all goals and aspirations intact. But for Georgia, especially, it feels like there is much more intangibly at risk.
Nick Saban no longer coaches Alabama, and the narrative when “the G.O.A.T.” retired in January was that it kicked the door open for Kirby Smart and Georgia to take over as the SEC’s preeminent force.
To some degree, the Bulldogs already had assumed that role, having won two of the last three national championships and 49 of their last 51 games overall. Of course, the two losses during that streak — and the one that preceded that extensive run — all came at the hand of Saban-coached Alabama teams. Smart was 1-5 head-to-head against Saban, his mentor.
Therefore, the ramifications of possibly falling to Saban’s successor, Kalen DeBoer, seem quite ominous for Georgia. And with road games soon to follow against No. 1 Texas and No. 6 Ole Miss, the potential for long-lingering effects due to doubt and vulnerability seem very real.
The good news for the Bulldogs is that is not all how the players look at it. Veterans such as Georgia linebacker Smael Mondon and receiver Arian Smith have played in a bunch of these kinds of game over the last four years, and they’re not looking at what awaits them at Bryant-Denny Stadium as some menacing obstacle they must get past.
“I wouldn’t say it’s like getting over a mountain because we’ve done that before,” said Mondon, who has played in Georgia’s last three games against Alabama, including the national championship win in Indianapolis 2021. “I’d just say it’s fun really. I’d say these are the types of games that you dream about playing as a kid. In big games like this, they’re a talented team and we’re a talented team. So, it’s more excitement for me than trying to scale a mountain.”
Said Smith, who’s played in the last four of these matchups: “We have a chip on our shoulder because we’re another good team just like they are. People can say what they want to say about the game and make predictions or whatever. We just try to not let that bother us and play the game like we do any other game. Coach tells us, we’re not going to do anything different to win a game than we do at practice. So, we’re going to do what we do at practice and take it into Saturday.”
The majority of Alabama’s players come in with a similar sentiment. With the exception of Ryan Williams, their sensational freshman receiver, most of the players that will compete in Saturday’s game had some sort of hand in the Crimson Tide’s 27-24 win over Georgia in the SEC championship game last December. That was, of course, a devastating loss for the Bulldogs and ultimately punched the Tide’s ticket to the College Football Playoff.
Quarterback Jalen Milroe, who was Alabama’s MVP in that game, will play a major role in this one. He’ll face a Georgia defense that leads the nation against the pass (91.3 ypg) and has yet to allow a touchdown this season.
Milroe said the Bulldogs’ linebacker play, plus a secondary led by junior Malaki Starks, is what makes their defense such a challenge.
“They have a great coach in Kirby Smart,” Milroe added. “He’s definitely defensive-minded. So, he’s going to put those guys in position to give us fits and give us a lot of things that we haven’t seen before this season. It all comes down to preparation, to identifying where the key players are at and just trying to eliminate bad plays.”
DeBoer actually is the one who will be encountering a new environment on Saturday. While he certainly coached his share of big games at Washington, where he led the Huskies to a Pac-12 Championship last year and a run to the CFP championship game, this will be his first foray into having “College GameDay” in town all weekend as his campus and his team becomes the center of the college football universe.
“You come here to Alabama to be a part of games like this that gather a lot of attention,” DeBoer said. “To be involved in an atmosphere like this is special and different. So, I told the team, embrace the challenges and the things that come our way against a great football team.”
There would seem to be at least some advantage for Georgia in not having to face Saban on the other sideline. Some of the moves the 17-year Alabama coach made in this series seem almost diabolical in retrospect. The Bulldogs had double-digit leads in the last three SEC championship game losses they suffered to the Crimson Tide. Two of those featured Saban making quarterback changes at halftime.
Smart was asked what made beating Saban so tough.
“We could talk for hours about that,” he said. “Development, recruiting, scheme, practice. You could go for hours about what makes them tough. Good football players at good football programs are hard to play against.”
That’s still the profile of the Alabama team Georgia will face on Saturday in Tuscaloosa. And vice versa. The Bulldogs vow to be ready for whatever awaits.
“I’m just excited, just really excited,” Georgia guard Dylan Fairchild said. “I think this team has taken on a role of enjoying hostile environments. You know, we’re going to try to go there and embrace being in an environment like that.”
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