Alabama Crimson Tide may not be as invincible as we once thought

Three weeks ago, when Georgia looked shockingly bad against Arkansas to open the season and Alabama steamrolled Missouri, this week’s matchup of the SEC’s two best teams seemed more like potential beat-down than a showdown.

Funny how a quarterback change and one stunningly poor defensive performance can change perspective.

Then came the real shocker: Alabama coach Nick Saban tested positive for COVID-19.

So Saban won’t coach in Saturday’s game, and the NCAA swiftly (two words that heretofore have been mutually exclusive) ruled that he cannot coach electronically any later than 90 minutes before kickoff.

It’s a well-worn statistic that Saban has never lost to one of his former assistants when they became head coaches. That streak grew to 21 games last week with Alabama’s 63-48 win over Mississippi and Lane Kiffin.

That’s a moot point now. Saturday’s game will be in the hands of Steve Sarkesian. Johnny Majors’s coaching record at Tennessee does not include the games he missed in 1992 while recuperating from heart surgery.

There’s no question that Saban’s sideline leadership will be missed.

But there’s a simple reason for his domination of his former coaches. He has always had more talent, usually abundantly so.

Most of the games haven’t even been competitive. Three exceptions stand out — that game against Kiffin, and Saban’s two epic battles with Georgia and Kirby Smart, one in the national championship game, the other in the SEC Championship Game.

Ole Miss may not have had the manpower to finish the job against Alabama. But the Rebels did strip the Crimson Tide of their aura of invincibility.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s offense, which looked wretched in the first half against Arkansas, has steadily evolved into a functioning if not prolific unit. Alabama’s defense looked uncharacteristically lost and befuddled against Ole Miss. Granted, the Bulldogs probably don’t pose the same threat to Alabama in terms of playing fast.

“We’re not Ole Miss,” Smart said. “We don’t run the same offense.”

But they don’t have to be. The Bulldogs won’t need to score 64 points to beat Alabama. They just need to move the ball enough to keep Alabama’s offense on the sidelines and score when they get their chances. Smart talked about the offense — with new coordinator Todd Monken and nine new starters including former walk-on Stetson Bennett playing quarterback “growing up on offense before our eyes.”

“It can be a painful growth process. It’s one of those — you go through some tough times with pups,” Smart said. “I remember the last year when Mel (Tucker) was here we were going through that defensively, and that was — it’s easy for me to get impatient. Now, we are reaping the rewards of a lot of those kids that were playing the, and they were young — Tyson Campbell, (Eric) Stokes, Richard (LeCounte) — all of those guys were young. They have a little more experience now, and we’re going through that a little bit on offense. I am watching the maturation process with that. I am not pleased with where we are, but I am pleased with the progress we have made.”

Georgia’s defense and Alabama’s offense may be the two best units in college football. But, as Smart noted, is this Alabama offense any better than the ones Georgia faced in those aforementioned games?

“The time we played them with Tua (Tagovailoa), we went into the game thinking they may score a thousand,” Smart said. “They had all those wideouts, and they were really, really good then, and I felt like they scored lots of points then.”

This Georgia defense is significantly better than those defenses were. If the Crimson Tide has any discernible advantage, it’s their size up front.

“But we’ve got some guys who will go in there and fight, and we’ve got some depth, so going to try and use those guys all we can,” Smart said.

Saturday’s game could be the first of three meetings between the teams this year. They very likely could be headed for a rematch in the SEC Championship Game. And would it be that shocking if they met again in the College Football Playoff?

After all, it is 2020.