Bossed around
Nick Saban is 11-0 against former assistants entering Monday night’s title game between Alabama and Georgia, which is coached by Kirby Smart. Saban went 3-0 against Derek Dooley (Tennessee) and Jim McElwain (once with Colorado State and twice with Florida), and he’s 2-0 against both Mark Dantonio (Michigan State) and Will Muschamp (with Florida), and 1-0 against Jimbo Fisher (with Florida State).
As Monday night gave way to Tuesday, the college football conversation shifted from Georgia's thrilling Rose Bowl triumph and Alabama's dominating Sugar Bowl win to the title pairing this Monday night between the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The participating coaches, Alabama's Nick Saban and Georgia's Kirby Smart, present instant intrigue given that Smart was Saban's defensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa from 2008 to 2015. The two coaches conducted separate conference calls Tuesday afternoon, and neither seemed interested in making Monday's showdown about one another.
Smart was asked if he had any kind of edge knowing so many of Saban's tendencies.
"I don't know that it's an advantage," he said. "His tendencies and his strengths are recruiting really good players who are really big and really fast, and then you have to block them, or you have to be able to run the ball against them. It comes down to a lot more than his tendencies, because his tendencies are very similar to a lot of good coaches.
"There are not a lot of tendencies that he has that are just going to be groundbreaking to allow us to benefit from. The bottom line is our players have to go out and play a really good football game to stay with these guys."
Former Saban assistants have not fared well as head coaches against the Crimson Tide. In fact, they're a disastrous 0-11, with the closest margin of victory being Alabama's 29-15 victory over Florida and Jim McElwain in the 2015 Southeastern Conference title game.
McElwain, who was Alabama's offensive coordinator from 2008 to 2011, took Florida back to the SEC title game in 2016 and lost to Alabama 54-16.
Saban improved to 11-0 against his former assistants by downing Jimbo Fisher and Florida State inside Mercedes-Benz on Sept. 2.
"I don't think the game is about the coaches," Saban said. "I think it's about the players. In most of those games, if the other guy had the players that we had, they might have beaten us, so it's not about the coaches. I didn't catch any passes or make any tackles last night. I didn't do any of that.
"The players did it all, and you prepare the players the best you can. We've had pretty good teams around here, and most of the guys were going to rebuild programs, so maybe we've been a little bit ahead of them."
Smart's biggest concern Tuesday was making sure his players could recover mentally from one of the most exciting bowl games ever played. The Bulldogs trailed Oklahoma 31-14 late in the first half and trailed 45-38 late in regulation before prevailing.
"I talked to the players immediately afterwards about not burning any more energy or emotion on that game and moving on," he said. "Alabama had a little more sound victory, so they probably didn't burn quite as much emotion, although I know it was emotional to beat a team that beat them last year."
Earning respect
Georgia true freshman quarterback Jake Fromm started earning fans on Sept. 2, when he replaced injured Jacob Eason midway through the first quarter and guided the Bulldogs to a win over Appalachian State. He added another supporter Monday night, as Oklahoma quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield offered significant praise.
"You can tell he commands his offense and that he has the respect of his teammates," Mayfield told reporters. "For me, that's about the greatest character trait you could have. I just told him to go win the whole thing and that I've got a lot of respect for him and to keep working hard.
"For him, I think the sky's the limit."
Coming together
Monday's championship matchup will be the final game for Jeremy Pruitt as Alabama's defensive coordinator and the final game for Kevin Sherrer as Georgia's outside linebackers coach.
Pruitt already has been announced as Tennessee's new head coach, and Sherrer will be his defensive coordinator.
"I know that Kevin wants to win this game for the University of Georgia, and Kevin wants to finish something he was a part of," Smart said. "I think it speaks to his brand the rest of his career if he's able to win a national championship here, and I certainly think he wants to do well for Lorenzo Carter, Davin Bellamy and all the kids he's coached.
"I'm sure Jeremy is the same way for the players that he recruited to Alabama. Both parties are working independent of each other knowing that on the recruiting side of things they're working together, and there's not a whole lot of recruiting going on right now with the dead period."
Odds and ends
Smart announced Tuesday that Dan Lanning, who was a graduate assistant with Smart at Alabama in 2015 before coaching inside linebackers at Memphis the past two seasons, would replace Sherrer after Monday's game. .. Sophomore tight end Charlie Woerner sustained a lower leg injury in the Rose Bowl, but Smart said he did not know the extent of the injury.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.