Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs will face their toughest opponent yet this weekend. The Florida Gators are the defending national champions and in a rare chance for two SEC teams to play on Saturday night, it should be an exciting battle of offenses.
“I’m a Jedi, then.”
“No, not yet. There is one thing that must be done. Vader. Vader must be confronted. Then, and only then, will you be a Jedi. You’re going to face him.”
Kirby Smart is not a big movie buff. That isn’t something he has time for. Certainly not from August through March, when every single spare second of potential screen time would be much better spent viewing movies.
Even the most casual of moviegoers is aware of the most inevitable story aspect of all. From Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader in Star Wars and Harry Potter vs. Voldemort in Harry Potter, to Pacino vs. De Niro at the airport and the Titans vs. the hillbillies in the Virginia state championship game, there’s something for everyone.
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The third act has begun. The ultimate battle. The climax has arrived. Whatever you want to call it, the climactic ultimate battle with one’s deadliest adversary to eventually accomplish that over-the-hump life-changing win is unavoidable, much like Thanos looming over Tony Stark. Unless, of course, “Endgame” isn’t what it seems to be. It’s “Avengers: Infinity War.” Our hero receives a good kick in the buttocks, and this isn’t even the ultimate confrontation.
Kirby Smart has watched the film far too many times. He’s played a part in it, trapped in an unending circle of agony until he figures out how to seize the Time Stone from Nick Saban, college football’s Mad Titan. Smart and his Georgia Bulldogs will get another opportunity to do so on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in the SEC championship game. It takes place on the same field where Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide have torn the hearts out of the Georgia Bulldogs on several occasions.
“We don’t dwell on history,” Smart told the reporters on Monday, referring to the upcoming confrontation this weekend. “Every team, I believe, is independent of the preceding one, so it is what it is, and our men must go out and perform well. What occurred in the previous games will have no bearing on this one. That is something I believe any competent coach would teach you.”
They would, in fact. Certainly, right now, at this time, I’m trying to avoid talking about curses and slumps and former apprentices plotting to depose their masters, as well as all the psychology that comes with it. Smart has always understood the relevance of it all outside of the furnace of in-season circumstances. When someone says how close he is to a Hollywood ending, he grins yet flinches a bit.
Especially on that particular night. It’s something you recall. The National Championship of the 2018 College Football Playoff. Overtime. Leading by a score of 23-20. With its backup quarterback, freshman Tua Tagovailoa, in the game after taking a sack, Alabama was confronted with a second-and-26 situation. The season was gone after one pass. Georgia had been defeated. In Atlanta, Georgia. The Bulldogs will play on the same field and against the same team on Saturday.
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However, Georgia has a 0-6 record versus Alabama since 2008. In the previous three, Smart was the coach, including a regular-season loss in 2020 that went from a 24-20 halftime lead to a soul-crushing 41-24 defeat.
BUT… Under Smart, Georgia has lost two of its three SEC championship game appearances, including a heartbreaker in 2018 in which the Tide rallied from a two-touchdown second-half hole.
However, the last time Alabama was an underdog was against Georgia, who was favored by one point in Athens on Oct. 3, 2015, and Bama triumphed 38-10. Smart was Alabama’s defensive coordinator on that day, and he took over at his alma school at the conclusion of the season.
However, former Saban assistants are still 1-24 against their former boss, despite Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M squad beating Bama earlier this season.
However, every time Georgia and Alabama meet, particularly in Atlanta for any kind of championship trophy, the Dawgs and Kirby Smart will be forced to see second-and-26 again and over.
There is only one way to break the loop, and Smart is well aware of it. Georgia must offer the world that third-act moment, that ultimate fight, that climax, in which the cursed are finally transformed into the heroes they were destined to be.
In July, Smart stated it himself: “Listen, the objectives are self-evident. They’re standing there in front of our eyes. We know what we need to accomplish, and we’re going to do it one goal at a time until only the final objective remains.”
As the small green man put it, One thing remained for the Georgia Bulldogs. They’ll have to face their Vader. It’s in their hands.
