Nick Saban evaluates how Steve Sarkisian, Kirby Smart are approaching Top 5 showdown

Saturday night will highlight two of college football’s biggest brands and top teams when Texas and Georgia square off in Austin. It will also featured two of the top head coaches in sport who both come from the Nick Saban coaching tree, Steve Sarkisian and Kirby Smart.

Sarkisian spent three total seasons working under Saban at Alabama while Smart spent nine seasons working with the former head coach many regard as the greatest of all time in college football. Saban was recently asked if he has spoken to his proteges before they face off this weekend in Austin.

“I talked to Sark this week and he kind of stays pretty even keel. He sort of analyzes the game a little differently in terms of how he’s going to approach it, what he’s going to do,” Saban said Friday on The Pat McAfee Show. “He’s had his offensive staff together for a long time. So they know they’re going to have to make adjustments in the game, because of his respect for Kirby in the way Kirby will play defense, and what he’ll try to do on defense is going to be something a little bit different that they’ll have to adjust to.”

Saban added that he wouldn’t be too surprised if the Longhorns offense got off to a little bit of a slow start like they did last weekend against Oklahoma. It’s an intriguing matchup between one of his former offensive play callers and one of his former defensive coordinators.

“I did not talk to Kirby, I’m going to talk to him a little later today. But I know Kirby’s been a little concerned about how they play defense,” Saban revealed. “Not quite as good a tackling team as they’ve been in the past, they’ve given up a few more explosive plays. But he’s got a really good defensive coaching staff, he’s got good players, and I’m sure they’ll get them on track.”

Georgia’s first half performance in their upset loss to Alabama along with giving up 31 points to Mississippi State last weekend are some of the moments that have raised concern regarding the Bulldogs’ defense. But Saban still believes in the defensive coaching philosophies of Smart.

“I think Kirby has got a really good ability to be technical when things aren’t going exactly right. Sometimes all the rest of us, the fans, and some of the people react a little more emotionally. But the real key to the drill is, I think when things aren’t going well with your team, you have to sit down and be technical and show them these are the things we need to improve on,” Saban explained. “Not get emotional and go crazy because the players want to play well. I mean nobody feels worse when something doesn’t go right than the player.

“So it’s not just about the coach, and I think Kirby was always really good at that. When he was a defensive coordinator with us, we had a bad game or we didn’t defend something properly, he was really good about being technical about how to fix it.”

Coaching will surely be a major key this weekend as two of the most talented rosters in college football square off. A heavyweight showdown that kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET airing on ABC and streaming on Fubo.