Kirby Smart addresses his matchups against Nick Saban

Only one former assistant of Nick Saban has been able to beat him in a head-to-head matchup. Jimbo Fisher pulled off an all-time upset in October, with Texas A&M taking down No. 1 Alabama at home.

Six years into his tenure in Athens and Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has not been able to take Saban down either. He’s had four attempts at it — a national championship, two SEC Championships, and a regular-season matchup in Tuscaloosa. Monday will present another opportunity in a national championship.

Smart was asked about his matchups against Alabama where Georgia has had leads in all four. The head coach said it’s never been about him vs. Saban. It’s about the head coach putting the players in position to win.

“It’s been games of momentum,” Smart said. “They’ve done a good job at momentum in the second half. Each game has been different. And it will never be about he and I. I know he won’t make it that and I won’t make it that, because that’s for you guys to do that.

“It’s about the players. It’s about those guys making plays and putting them in a position to be successful and the guys that, the players that make the meaningful plays, the plays that are conversions – the red areas, the turnovers or not turnovers, the explosive plays that determines the outcomes of games, not he and I.”

If Smart is to finally get over the Alabama hump, they will have to overcome a team playing its best football down the stretch. Not many people saw the 17 point win coming for the Crimson Tide in Decemeber.

Georgia will have an opportunity to bounce back in a big way come Jan. 10

Kirby Smart, Georgia shifts focus to national championship

Georgia was able to bounce back from the SEC Championship loss with a blowout win against Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinal. The performance looked like the Bulldog team that was on display all season, not the one in Atlanta.

After the game, Smart talked about how his team prepared for the Orange Bowl and with the game now over, will shift all of their attention to the national championship.

“That’s all our kids have heard about for three weeks,” Smart said of Georgia’s mistakes against Alabama. “Our focus has been on, OK, what can we get better at, where can we turn our energy, because it does no good to look backwards. It only does good to look forward and who was our opponent. We always say you can’t let a loss beat you twice, and we didn’t let that happen today and now we get to focus our energy on a really good football team, and that’s where we’ll turn our head and attention now.”