Kirby Smart's Thoughts on Kalen DeBoer's First Season at Alabama

It was notoriously tough for any former Nick Saban assistant to beat the Alabama head coach during his tenure with the Crimson Tide. In fact, it only happened three times in over 30 attempts.

Kirby Smart has reached the peak of college football as a head coach twice with College Football Playoff titles in 2021 and 2022. However, he was 1-5 against Saban during a dominant run with the Bulldogs. He started out 0-1 against new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer in the first meeting between the two coaches last September with the Crimson Tide's 41-34 win.

Smart was asked to share his analysis of DeBoer's first season at Alabama. While he said he wasn't qualified to do that, he did offer some high praise for the Crimson Tide head coach.

" Anytime you come into a situation that he came into, behind Nick [Saban] and at that program and trying to transition, it’s going to be a new deal," Smart said Tuesday at SEC Media Days in Atlanta. "I think he’s a tremendous coach. Obviously we played at his place, and they did an outstanding job jumping all over us. So, a lot of respect for Coach DeBoer and the job that he’s done.”

Alabama finished the year 9-4 in DeBoer's first season, falling just short of the 12-team CFP and then losing to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The highlight of his first season was the win over then No. 1 Georgia, which snapped the Bulldogs 42-game regular-season winning streak.

Georgia went on to win the SEC championship over Texas, but lost to Notre Dame in the CFP quarterfinals.

Alabama and Georgia will rematch this fall on Sept. 27 in Athens, Georgia for the first time since 2015.