It is a new age and era for Alabama fans since they might not be king of the ring anymore. Nick Saban led the team for a decade of prizes and trophies but now that he’s officially left the sport, they will rely on the might of Kalen DeBoer to live up to the same standard. But while he may not accomplish all those giant feats in his debut season, his abilities might still challenge other teams in the league, especially their staunch rivals, the Georgia Bulldogs.

Kalen DeBoer, the former HC for the Washington Huskies, was called to arms to take over the reins from Nick Saban after he officially retired this year. When it comes to Alabama’s rivalry against Georgia, the men of Crimson Tide have always come out as the better victors but if DeBoer needs to prove himself worthy of the challenge, it will be crucial for him to win the game on September 28th and secure a credible reputation for himself as the newest coach for Alabama. And as per popular opinions, he very well could best the abilities of Kirby Smart this season, but crash out just as easily against Tennessee or LSU.

The Bulldogs predicted to lose their bark against Alabama

On the 10th August episode of the ‘Crain & Company show’, the hosts, Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone invited Clint Lamb to dissect the new future of the Alabama Crimson Tide and what it will look like with Kalen DeBoer leading it. Lamb, who is the Alabama football analyst for Cover Crimson, had a bit of a good-news, bad-news answer to provide to the viewers.

Let’s start with the good news to cheer up our dear Bama fans. Lamb was discussing the three rival teams of Alabama- Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU and among them, DeBoer’s team is likely to win their game against Georgia at all costs. But the bad news is, that Alabama could potentially lose out to both Tennessee and LSU after their monumental victory against the Bulldogs. He said, “I think between those three games that you mentioned, it is very possible that Alabama goes one and two and I couldn’t tell you which two. A lot of people are going to assume Georgia and I think that that’s pretty fair so then it becomes Tennessee or LSU but I also think it’s possible that Alabama can get the win at home against Georgia early in the season and then turn around and lose to both Tennessee and LSU on the road.”

Thus, the situation seems pretty dicey for both DeBoer and the Crimson Tide team, but maybe the fans can take pride in knowing the fact that Georgia will be an easy opponent to beat. Furthermore, if history has proven anything, it’s that Alabama has consistently been better than Georgia and that is something that will be a tough pill for Kirby Smart to swallow.

Taking a look at the renowned Alabama-Georgia rivalry

The Alabama-Georgia rivalry might just be one of the oldest reigning enmities in college football. These two teams met for the first time on November 2, 1895, and since then, have gone on to face each other for a century more of brutal tackles and game-winning touchdowns. In the entirety of their 73 meetings, Alabama leads the series with a record of 43-26-4 and thus, Saban’s pride is clearly leading with a huge gap from the Bulldogs.

If we were to look at the rivalry with a narrower sense, we’d come upon the Saban-Smart rivalry, which has consisted of nationally prominent matchups from 2016 to 2023. In these 6 games between the mentor-mentee turned rival coaches, Saban has always come out on top. Currently, the record stands at 5-1, which doesn’t say a lot about Smart’s abilities to best the legendary Nick Saban. But with a new leader in charge, maybe this could be Smart’s chance to change the rivalry around or it could be DeBoer’s turn to defeat Georgia as his predecessor so grandly once did.