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WATCH: Nick Saban shares gracious moment with Kirby Smart following title loss

by:Austin Brezina•01/10/22•

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Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

After the National Championship was over and Georgia had ended their title drought, Nick Saban and Kirby Smart shared a great moment on the field. Saban appeared to graciously congratulate Smart on his victory while laughing at how incredible the game’s fourth quarter was.

Saban and Smart share special moment

Cameras following the pair of SEC coaches caught their postgame handshake and a small part of their conversation, seeming to show how proud Saban was of his former assistant. Normal postgame handshakes are fairly quick and feel like a formality, but the coaches had a conversation reflecting their history on the field as Georgia’s players began to celebrate.

Saban even appeared to laugh for a moment with Smart about the game’s wild fourth quarter, appearing to tell Smart that Georgia “kicked our butts” in the final quarter.

After a long discussion, cameras showed the pair continue their conversation as Saban congratulated him with a smile. Smart is now only the second ever former assistant of Saban that has beaten him, and the first to take away a national title from him.

The win was Georgia’s first national title in 41 seasons Monday night, with Stetson Bennett leading the Bulldogs to a 33-18 win over Alabama.

Stetson Bennett emotional following title win

On Monday night, Bennett’s status as one of Georgia’s all-time greats was cemented with a 33-18 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide, winning the Bulldogs a national championship for the first time in 41 years. In the game’s final moments, the ESPN broadcast cut to Bennett on the sidelines, who had broken down in tears as the clock was winding down.

Bennett finished the game with 17 completions in 26 attempts, good for 224 passing yards and two touchdowns. Though Bennett coughed up a costly fumble early in the game, he said in the postgame press conference that he wasn’t going to let his turnover be the reason that the Bulldogs lost the game — and surely enough, it wasn’t.

Bennett’s tears first started flowing on the sidelines with just over three minutes left in the game. In the wild fourth quarter that Saban and Smart discussed in their moment on the field, Alabama had one last drive to try and bring the game within striking distance. Bryce Young managed to carry the Crimson Tide’s drive all the way to the Georgia 44-yard line, but a Keele Ringo 79-yard pick-six sealed the deal for the Bulldogs, putting the game out of reach.

On3’s Simon Gibbs contributed to this article.