CFB game of the week: Alabama vs. Georgia

Can Kirby Smart solve his Alabama problem? Is Kalen DeBoer really the coach to follow the great Nick Saban? These are questions both coaches are facing from their fanbases heading into a showdown on Saturday night.

For Kirby Smart, he is 1-6 against Alabama in his career, including losing a classic last year. He is 107-13 against everyone else. He’s got one big win under his belt already this year after winning in Knoxville, but the pressure remains to show he can get it done against the Tide.

Kalen DeBoer is coaching in the shadow of who many consider to be the greatest coach of all time, and Alabama fans have already been calling for his job and clamoring for Saban to come back after a couple of bad losses.

That includes losing the season opener 31-17 to Florida State, a team that went 2-10 a year ago. What’s worse, the final score makes it look like a closer game than it really was.

Granted, Florida State still looks like one of the best teams in the country this year, but the expectations for Alabama were to compete for a national championship.

Neither team has run the ball well to start the year. In the loss to Florida State, Alabama ran for just 87 yards on 29 rushes, and despite beating Wisconsin 38-14, they ran for just 72 yards on 22 rushes.

Georgia has prided itself on running the ball for years and did rush for 198 yards against Tennessee, but they only averaged 3.6 yards a carry.

The good news for both teams is that the quarterbacks have stepped up. Gunner Stockton had the best game of his young career, going 23-31 for 304 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Tennessee. Ty Simpson, through three games, has thrown for 862 yards and nine touchdowns, including going 24-29 for 382 yards and four touchdowns against Wisconsin.

With both teams having similar outlooks offensively, the game likely comes down to which defense steps up, and who wins the line of scrimmage.

That should be good news for Smart and Georgia. While the defensive line didn’t create much pressure against Tennessee, their offensive line did well to protect Stockton.

Alabama lost the game in the trenches on both sides of the ball against Florida State as the Seminoles controlled the line of scrimmage for most of the game.

Smart is also the defensive-minded of the two coaches. He’s won two national championships thanks to being the best defensive coach in the country, as opposed to DeBoer, whose specialty is the offense.

Smart seems to have the advantage this time around in the one matchup that’s been his Achilles heel. He also has home-field advantage around this time. If there’s anything we’ve learned the last two years, though, in college football, it’s that anything is possible.

Jacob Rudy is a third-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jar7371@psu.edu.