CFP CHAMPIONSHIP: Smart sets Tide, Saban's success as target for Bulldogs
Georgia coach Kirby Smart and Alabama’s Nick Saban meet in Monday’s national championship game in Indy. (UA Media Relations)
By GRAHAM DUNN
On Saturday, Coach Nick Saban arrived in Indianapolis dressed like Indiana Jones, wearing a leather jacket. All that was missing was a whip and sable Fedora.
It was the focus of the social Internet for 24 hours. The fashion statement superseded the event itself… the event that is the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
When someone’s heraldry is part of the legend, the advent is complete.
With Saban, it’s no longer just about winning football games. His status has become greater than that.
Yet, the players see the same coach every day, no matter what he wears.
“Coach Saban is just Coach Saban,” stated Tide offensive tackle Evan Neal. “He's going to coach us hard. He's going to get after us. He's going to demand our best. I can't tell you I've noticed anything like that. In my time here he's been the same person. He demands excellence. That's just who he is.”
The legacy is all but complete and, frankly, no matter what happens Monday between the Tide and Georgia, Saban has already been deemed the greatest in his profession.
It’s not only about the championships… he has seven which is more than anyone in the history of college football. It is how he got there, why he has been so successful and whether his pupils can ever come close to matching his success.
Certainly Kirby Smart has been deemed one that might at least approach some of the success.
“The goal was to have a successful program,” Smart said when asked about building the Bulldogs into a national power. “And the state of Georgia and the high school coaches and the support you get in the state of Georgia for football makes it a very fertile area. And you're always going to have a good recruiting base. And we've been able to have that.”
Opposing coaches are not normally asked about Saban but in the case of Smart, it’s part of his story… and whether or not he would finally remove the gorilla off his back with a victory on Monday.
“As far as the way we organize and run the program, most of that came from my time spent with Coach Saban,” Smart said “There was a year at LSU, a year at Dolphins. You take a lot of things from the places you come from in your history. That's certainly helped shape me as a coach.”
If Smart or Jimbo Fisher or new Florida coach Billy Napier is the heir apparent to Saban’s success, the successor will do it under the guise of a new game. The transfer portal and the NIL add additional strain to the idea of building a powerhouse. Saban warned about it on Sunday.
“I personally think that having resiliency, learning how to overcome adversity, doing the kind of things you need to create value for yourself and your future is sometimes difficult, sometimes hard, sometimes it doesn't work exactly like you want it to work,” Saban explained.
“But I do think there's benefits to people to having to try to work through that. And so I think now we have sort of -- I don't know if you want to call it a fad or whatever -- but anybody that's a little discontented with the program that they're in, just get in the transfer portal and see what my opportunities would be someplace else. I don't know that that was the intention originally. I hope it doesn't continue to be that way. But we're going to continue to try to create value for our players personally, academically and athletically so they have a better chance to be more successful in life. And hopefully our players can buy into that so they won't want to go someplace else. But a lot of this is based on playing time. And when you have 85 guys on scholarship, everybody can't start.”
Saban added that while he likes the idea of rewarding players for NIL, dangerous precedents have already been set based on how the coaches are reworking the rule to fit their interpretation.
“I think what is a little concerning is how is that used to get players to decide where they go to school, because I don't think that was the intention,” he said. “I don't think that would be the NCAA's intention. I think we probably need some kind of national legislation to sort of control that to some degree, because I think there will be an imbalance relative to who can dominate college football if that's not regulated in some form or fashion.”
Fisher and Texas A&M seem to be making the most of the new rule having signed what is currently considered the No. 1 recruiting class. Napier is expected to rebuild the Gators back to respectability.
As for Smart, his chance is now, that is after he had a similar plight just a few weeks ago in the SEC Championship game.
“What I control is who we recruit, how we develop players, how we keep people in our program, and then how we do scheme-wise and things,” he said. “Because if you do that right, the other will take care of itself. But my focus and energy and entire mind is on what can we do to help our players play better.”
Back in October, Fisher finally broke the Saban assistants’ losing streak with a win in College Station. Smart can make more noise with a win in the title game.
“It's a great honor to be across from Coach Saban and the tremendous job he's done, but it's probably nothing unusual for him to be in this game because he's been in this game an awful lot,” Smart said. “And I know he doesn't take that for granted because I know the work and effort he puts into it to get his team here.
“I've been able to see that. I've been a part of that. I also know the work and effort we've put in to get to this point. It is no easy job to get to this point in the season through the SEC gauntlet, through the championship game, through the semifinals. It's a tough rigorous season.”
Win or lose on Monday, Saban’s lore has been written, wardrobe notwithstanding. Who follows is yet to be determined but Smart, at least this week, has the inside track.