Alabama and Georgia has been, in many ways, the defining college football matchup of the last decade. Ahead of the 2016 season, the Bulldogs hired alumnus Kirby Smart as the program’s new head coach, after a decade on Nick Saban’s staffs with the Miami Dolphins and the Crimson Tide. In quick order, Smart turned Georgia into the chief rival of Saban’s Alabama powerhouse, and in the early 2020s, shifted the tide in the SEC with back-to-back national championships. The first came at the end of the 2021 season, against Saban and the Crimson Tide.
The games between legendary coach and his greatest apprentice made for great theater, but the Alabama-Georgia series hasn’t lost much intrigue in the years since Saban’s retirement. Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer’s first great win with the program came in a 41–34 thriller against the Bulldogs in 2024 at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and he followed it up in ’25 with a 24–21 win in Athens. Georgia landed a huge blow in the last matchup at the SEC championship, winning 28–7.
