| FTBL Georgia isn't "the new Bama" - it's the old Bama

[musso]

How Kirby Smart built Georgia into college football's next dynasty

No. 1 in the preseason was, of course, Alabama, which seemed to play not to lose. At one point, Saban questioned his team's emotion, wondering why players had stopped chanting in the tunnel before games as they had in the past.

Alabama used to have an edge, manufacturing it through competition and slights in the media, real or imagined. But that edge appears to have dulled in recent years, with the Tide struggling to put away teams late (see: losses at Tennessee and LSU) and playing down to competition (see: Texas A&M and Texas).

The edge belongs to Georgia now.

Jim Nagy runs the Senior Bowl, which is equal parts college all-star game and NFL draft showcase. When he watches Georgia, he sees the Alabama blueprint in action -- the high-end talent, specifically on defense. Saban used to load up on big, strong linemen, Nagy said, but now it appears Smart has "cornered the market on those guys."

There's even a parallel on offense. Remember when Alabama used to have game-manager quarterbacks and multiple bruising running backs? It's flipped to where that's now Georgia with the ultimate blue-collar QB in Bennett and a trio of hard-nosed backs in Kenny McIntosh, Daijun Edwards and Kendall Milton.

"You've gotten full recruiting classes that have cycled through now, right? And they're just building on each other," Nagy said. "So the culture is established. There's a hunger there. I think where Alabama kind of ran into it was after they'd won a bunch -- and this is just hearing this from the coaches on the staff there -- after they'd won multiple national championships, they would have kids come on the recruiting visits and see all the trophies and then they would sign. And part of them felt like they already helped win those trophies when they didn't. I don't think there's that, um, what's the word I'm trying to use?"

Entitlement?

"Right," he said. "I don't think there's that entitlement yet in the Georgia program. I think they still seem like a hungry group."

 

[c5vetman]

JMHO... Alabama and Saban have progressed (may be a good or a bad thing?) and are trying to win in a new way, whereas Kirby Dumb is still just doing the same things Saban did 10-15 years ago. I believe Saban will perfect the new way and Kirby will have to start scrambling to recreate UGA into the next iteration.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

JMHO... Alabama and Saban have progressed (may be a good or a bad thing?) and are trying to win in a new way, whereas Kirby Dumb is still just doing the same things Saban did 10-15 years ago. I believe Saban will perfect the new way and Kirby will have to start scrambling to recreate UGA into the next iteration.

Smart has it going....they have a quality team returning....great recruiting...
Gonna be tough to stop them for years to come..

 

[ElephantStomp]

Smart has it going....they have a quality team returning....great recruiting...
Gonna be tough to stop them for years to come..

Defenses will start stopping their offense. Smart has the luxury of a soft schedule. If TCU somehow wins the NC and stops UGA.