Did the college rule changes save saban from a surging Kirby?

Kirby beat Saban exactly 1 time, and it required torn ACLs to Bama’s star receivers to do it. Bama was cooked on offense once Jameson Williams left in the 2nd with Metchie already out from the SECCG when Bama beat the shite out of them

Hell If Marvin Harrison Jr doesn’t go out against OSU in that semifinal, the 1980 drought might very well still be active

As the last 3 seasons have shown, it can easily be argued a decrease in injuries to opposing star receivers is all it took to stem the UGA “surge” compared to NIL or anything else

Saban even got the last laugh in the final SECCG with that mid team that fell to Michigan in the semis

Respect your elders

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Kirby beat Saban exactly 1 time, and it required torn ACLs to Bama’s star receivers to do it. Bama was cooked on offense once Jameson Williams left in the 2nd with Metchie already out from the SECCG when Bama beat the shite out of them

Hell If Marvin Harrison Jr doesn’t go out against OSU in that semifinal, the 1980 drought might very well still be active

As the last 3 seasons have shown, it can easily be argued a decrease in injuries to opposing star receivers is all it took to stem the UGA “surge” compared to NIL or anything else

Saban even got the last laugh in the final SECCG with that mid team that fell to Michigan in the semis

Respect your elders

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UGA had four starters out in the playoff game against Ole Miss last year. We lost. Ole Miss won.

Under the old rules Kirby would have won 5-6+ titles at Georgia and would be regarded as the same level as Saban.

Even if Saban didn't quit early, he wasn't going to coach til he was 80 and Kirby had potentially 20 more yrs at UGA.

I'm sure Saban's sociopathic mind thought all about that.

I'm sure we all have these crazy idiotic thoughts
but we don't all post them

Kirby can’t defend the vertical passing game. It’s his Achilles heel. The lone win over Saban was due to the vertical passing game being stalled. That’s the only reason he won.

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Saban beat Mack Brown exactly 1 time and it required an injury to Texas starting QB on the first series to do it. Just sayin.

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So a 5 game sample size where the coach in question was 1-4 vs a 1-game sample size is supposed to add what to this conversation?

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I thought y'all were supposed to have depth

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…but Bama isn’t?

We lost.

I think the margins just got extremely thin. The SEC leveled up massively, not just at the top but in the middle class. Alabama “regressed” from transcendental all-time dominance to a mere mortal best-in-class program. Georgia improved to best-in-class status at the same time. But previously, behind Alabama there were a handful of talented programs (Georgia included, but also LSU, Auburn) that were good enough to take a game here and there but not really compete as equals… and then a bunch of mediocrity.

Now any given year there’s Georgia, Alabama, probably Texas in that same tier, but like 4 to 6 other teams that can plausibly take games and go on a run to the conference title game. And then there’s another 3 to 4 with the talent and coaching to compete that have horrible injury luck or one brutal positional regression that knocks them out of contending that year, but that have potential to go on a run any given year. It’s just really hard to stay ahead of that many programs putting that many resources into competing.

It’s only gonna get worse, too, as the Big Ten finally catches up with their media deals. They’ve already won the last 3 titles, and on a talent level it’s difficult to argue that their top end can’t compete, since they splattered SEC teams along the way. Their middle class isn’t as good yet, but the money for that is coming.

So, long story short, I’d say Saban got out before the rule changes really leveled the playing field, and that Kirby was more of a harbinger that change was coming. I don’t think Saban’s “legacy” would have been “tarnished” if he hung around and they really fell back to the land of the good but not great. But the trend was obvious and I don’t see anything that would have prevented it. And Kirby’s living with it just as much as anyone else right now, though he’s doing a great job of staying a step above the surging competition.