New era at Alabama is also a new chapter for SEC rival Georgia football under Kirby Smart

Kalen DeBoer may have racked up his more than 100 coaching victories at schools far away from the SEC footprint, but Kirby Smart, like most college football fans, watched the new Alabama coach on the sideline his last game.

The Georgia football coach was in front of his TV watching Washington play Michigan last week for the national championship.

It’s a game that Smart and Georgia won the past two seasons and should be in the mix for years to come as the SEC and the playoff expand and DeBoer settles in at Alabama after a highly successful two seasons at Washington.

More: Georgia football staff changes: Will Muschamp to new role, co-defensive coordinator hired

More: 'We need to do better': Georgia football ranks last in FBS in latest NCAA graduation rates

Smart is 94-16 in eight seasons at Georgia.

DeBoer is 104-12 in nine seasons as a head coach.

That includes five seasons at NAIA Sioux Falls.

That shouldn’t diminish what he’s done. After all, Smart started his coaching career as an assistant at NCAA Division II Valdosta State.

Two days after Nick Saban retired as Alabama coach, Smart was on the road recruiting Friday around the state — along with his assistants — on the same day DeBoer was named the Crimson Tide’s new coach.

Smart recruits 365 days a year — or something close to that.

DeBoer steps into an Alabama program that Saban built into college football’s most successful during his 17 seasons.

The South Dakota native who also was head coach at Fresno State and had coaching stops at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan and Indiana needs to recruit at a similar level to Smart and Georgia in what’s now a 16-team SEC.

That already includes recruiting coaches.

Smart plucked veteran SEC assistant Travaris Robinson away from Alabama as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Saturday morning before DeBoer’s formal introduction and then held onto him. Robinson interviewed Sunday to be Alabama’s defensive coordinator, but is staying with Georgia, according to ESPN’s Chris Low. South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack will be the Tide's DC.

DeBoer’s staff is expected to include several of his assistant coaches from the Huskies.

Alabama lost top wide receiver Isaiah Bond to Texas already via the transfer portal. He told ESPN that Saban's retirement was a big factor.

"One hundred percent," he said. "That was the decision why I left."

Georgia and Alabama fans were waiting for final word from safety Caleb Downs from Mill Creek on if he’s staying with the Tide.

Smart landed the “Kirby Copter,” Tuesday at Evans High and visited four-star offensive line prospect Mason Short, who de-committed from Alabama earlier in the day.

The word Georgia never came up during DeBoer’s 26-minute introduction with Saban in the audience on Saturday or the more than 12 minutes he answered questions from TV media afterwards, but he did reference “tough competition here in the SEC,” when talking about the importance of recruiting.

The Bulldogs will be front and center in DeBoer’s first SEC game on Sept. 28 in Tuscaloosa.

Smart, entering his ninth season, is now the second longest tenured coach in the conference after Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, but Smart’s consistency has even topped Alabama the last five years.

Georgia is 62-6 since the start of the 2019 season, ahead of Alabama’s 60-8.

Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann posted on his X account (formerly Twitter) Tuesday morning a graphic that listed the Bulldogs topping the nation during that same stretch in fewest points allowed-14.6. Alabama wasn’t listed in the top five.

Saban dealt Smart three of those losses in that span, but Smart won a pair of national titles during the last five seasons to Saban’s one.

“I know how hard it is to do it at that level for a long time and he’s accomplished that,” Smart said last week on Atlanta radio station 92.9 FM.

DeBoer went 25-3 at Washington, including 10-1 against ranked teams with the loss coming to Michigan 34-13 in the national championship game on Jan. 8.

He was 3-0 in games against Oregon and former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning and 2-0 against Texas and Steve Sarkisian, including in the national semifinal this year. The Longhorns make their SEC debut in 2024.

Smart and DeBoer are close in age, born 14 months apart.

Smart is 48. DeBoer is 49.

Saban’s retirement leaves just four active head coaches with national titles on the FBS level: Smart, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney with two and the last in 2018, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh who could bolt for the NFL and North Carolina’s Mack Brown who will be 73 next season.

Smart is the only SEC head coach that’s won a national championship and he’s returning quarterback Carson Beck, inside linebacker Smael Mondon, safety Malaki Starks and has added six transfers and the nations top ranked recruiting class.

“You're always going to have more turnover on your team now with the age that we're in, but you've got to make sure that your team is built annually the right way,” Smart said after the Orange Bowl. “I'm very excited about the leaders we have coming back for next year and the team we have coming back for next year.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirby Smart, UGA football enter new era with Kalen DeBoer at Alabama