- Earth to Kirby Smart, Nick Saban has been retired for nearly two years now. You’re allowed to beat Alabama.
- Kalen DeBoer continues mastery of top coaches. Beware of Vanderbilt, though.
- Penn State, LSU deliver familiar acts.
The past few seasons, programs ranging from Tennessee to Florida State to Vanderbilt have treated Alabama with as much reverence as a paper napkin, while stripping off the Crimson Tide’s cloak of invincibility and trampling the elephant.
And then there’s Georgia’s Kirby Smart. He acts if he’s still facing Nick Saban’s Alabama — and not just that, but Saban-in-his-prime Alabama.
Kalen DeBoer owns Smart, and maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising — DeBoer does his best work in the biggest games — except that Georgia’s coach acts as if it’s no big thing. Acts as if he expects it, almost.
Alabama toppled Georgia, 24-21, to snap the Bulldogs’ 33-game home winning streak and send Smart’s career record against the Tide tumbling to 1-7.
What’s he think of that?
“I mean, what’s everybody else’s record against them?” responded Smart, who offered a similar remark after losing at Alabama last season. “… I don’t lose sleep over that, because those games have been championship-caliber games.”
Cringe.
Maybe, an opposing coach could say something like that when Saban was on the sideline and nobody would gag, but, earth to Kirby, the GOAT’s been a TV talking head for nearly two years now.
“I just saw 25 scouts out here,” Smart said, in a nod to the talent on the two rosters.
And I just saw Smart lose to Alabama again. As brilliant of a coach as he’s has been throughout his Georgia tenure, he still turtles upon the sight of crimson.
And the next time Alabama fans want to punt their coach back to Washington, remember that Smart is a Georgia Tech 2-point conversion away or a Tennessee field goal away from being DeBoer the past two seasons. There’s no monster left in the SEC, just a bunch of pretty good teams, and it’s a messy affair from Saturday to Saturday.
As for everybody else’s record against Alabama, I don’t have the full list of figures at my fingertips, but, off the top of my head, Tennessee’s Josh Heupel has two wins in his past three tries against Alabama, and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia has more career victories against Alabama than any Georgia starter not named Stetson Bennett IV during Smart’s tenure.
Speaking of Pavia, the Tide lost to Vanderbilt last season, a week after Alabama beat Georgia in one of those “championship-caliber games.’ Pavia’s Commodores will roll into Bryant-Denny Stadium next weekend with an unblemished record.
Quick, DeBoer, grab a megaphone and scream, Rat poison!
What a difference a few weeks have made for Alabama’s offensive line. A unit that got battered like a screen door in a hurricane in the opener at Florida State held steady while protecting the quarterback against a Georgia defense opponents used to fear.
Credit Alabama coordinator Ryan Grubb and quarterback Ty Simpson for scheming and executing circles around Georgia, but DeBoer pulled off the same feat last season with a different coordinator and a different quarterback.
DeBoer’s living up to his reputation of saving his best work for the biggest moments. At Washington, DeBoer went 2-0 against Texas and Steve Sarkisian and 3-0 against Oregon and Dan Lanning. It’s the unranked opponents that lay in the weeds before springing up and clubbing DeBoer’s teams with a two-by-four.
Alabama’s not out of the woods yet, but it’s as much alive in the College Football Playoff hunt as any of the SEC’s one-loss teams, a list that now includes Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and LSU.
For Georgia, at least there’s no opponent left on the schedule that its coach venerates in the same way as Alabama.
Here’s what else is on my mind after Week 5:
Penn State delivers another ‘Big Game James’ Franklin special
Penn State is like one of those puzzles where you look at two similar photos and you’re supposed to find the difference between the images. Except, you stare at the images for a minute, and you realize there’s something off with this exercise: The image on the right is the exact same as the one on the left.
Seriously, try to convince me 2025 Penn State isn’t the same as 2024 Penn State.
Same coach who wilts in big games, as sure as the sun rises every morning. Same average quarterback whose special skill is bamboozling the NFL mock draft cottage industry. Same pathetic schedule that will grease the wheels for Penn State to roll back into the playoff for another also-ran finish.
Penn State rallied and came close against Oregon in a 30-24 overtime loss, but, that’s the script, isn’t it?
Same picture, different year.
“I get that narrative,” Penn State coach James Franklin said of his unflinching persistence to lose to the best teams on his schedule, “and it’s really not narrative, it’s factual. It’s the facts. I get it, but I try to look at the entire picture and what we’ve been able to do here.”
Hard to miss the picture. Looks the same as the one last year.
Speaking of losing big games … let’s go to Brian Kelly
If LSU coach Brian Kelly hadn’t been so busy berating a reporter a couple of weeks ago, he’d have noticed there was a dead canary in the Tigers coal mine.
LSU’s 24-19 loss to Mississippi was weeks in the making, the product of an offense that simply won’t ignite. The Tigers will enter October having not yet reached 24 points in any game against a Bowl Subdivision opponent.
After this one, Kelly and Garrett Nussmeier impersonated some sort of odd comedic act in which Kelly insists his quarterback is healthy, and his quarterback insists he’s not discussing his health. I’m not a doctor, and I probably shouldn’t attempt to play one in a newspaper column, so I’ll leave it at this: Nussmeier’s trademark zip is missing. Make of that what you will.
How about giving the quarterback some help, though? Nussmeier’s receivers struggled to get open, and LSU didn’t even bother attempting a ground game until the second half.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin seems like he’ll be too busy to move to Gainesville, Florida, this winter. Hands full with the College Football Playoff, and all. Kiffin’s Rebels are undefeated, with only two ranked opponents left on the schedule.
I’m not entirely convinced this Ole Miss team is as good as the one last season that squandered a playoff roster. It doesn’t have to be, though. Just don’t blow it in games against the likes of Kentucky and Florida. Kentucky already is in the rearview mirror.
And would Ole Miss fans rush the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium after this victory against LSU?
No. Been there, done that.
Instead, jovial Rebels fans settled for trolling LSU by singing Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge” while exiting the stadium.
“You don’t rush the field, because we did what we’re supposed to do, and that’s win the game,” Kiffin said. “And so, that makes me happy that this program’s got to that place.”
Three and out
1. Who will Auburn blame this time, after yet another one-score loss served by embattled coach Hugh Freeze, this one against Texas A&M? Is this result on the officials, too? Auburn doesn’t have it so bad as Arkansas and Florida. Those teams are led by fired-coaches-in-waiting, but the season’s young yet, and there’s still pink slips to be written. Let’s check back on Freeze after games against Georgia and Missouri.
2. Ohio State is surrendering just 5.5 points per game after a 24-6 win at Washington. Oh, and quarterback Julian Sayin will take a 78.8% completion rate into October. Who’s the national championship frontrunner? Don’t overthink this. It’s Ryan Day’s team with the No. 1 by its name.
3. Has anyone checked to see whether Florida State wide receiver Squirrel White remains embedded into the turf in Charlottesville, Virginia, after Cavaliers fans stampeded onto the field and engulfed White and anyone around him, milliseconds after the conclusion of an overtime takedown of the Seminoles?
My first thought as the field-storming unfolded: I hope the players make it out of there OK.
My second thought: That’s one heck of a lot of boat shoes on a football field.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.