Kirby Smart Delivers Bold Take on Alabama Teams He Coached

May 6, 2026 Michael Brauner Alabama, Alabama, Featured News
ATHENS, GA - APRIL 18: Head coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs during the 2026 UGA G-Day Spring game on Saturday April 18, 2026 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, GA. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire)

Since he’s left Tuscaloosa, Kirby Smart has established himself as arguably the best coach in the nation over the last decade — not including Nick Saban — turning the Georgia Bulldogs back into a national powerhouse.

With two national titles of his own and having one of the most feared teams in the nation yearly, Smart knows what quality football looks like. That does not mean he’s forgotten just how dominant his Alabama teams were when he served as defensive coordinator.

Smart made an appearance on “The Next Round” from the Regions Tradition this week, and he said that with the way college football has changed over the years in terms of ability to stack depth, the best Tide teams of the 2010s would have had their way with the best teams today.

“Our best Alabama teams, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, would be the dog out of all these teams right now,” Smart said when asked about how much depth has changed over time. “They could practice different and they were deeper. The game has not changed that much from 2012 to 2025, but the roster has and those teams would Clubber Lange somebody. They would physically beat you.”

“I look at our team now and think ‘Oh man, Oh God, we don’t have the depth, we’re not as good as we were, we’re not gonna be able to go out and win the SEC’ and it’s just relative…there’s just not as much talent acquisition and talent on a team to be able to develop and grow. I’m playing younger players. I got kids that never would have played at Georgia when I got there or at Alabama that are having to play now because you don’t have enough.”

Undoubtedly, Smart is right about the way NIL and the transfer portal have distributed the talent across college football, which most fans are on board with.

As for the teams at the height of the Saban era, we may never see domination at that level again.