Episode 2810: Kirby Smart says Nick Saban 'set up' UGA with pregame comments

It is our belief, and it's for the most part played out this way, that Alabama has been getting a lot of love all week long, and maybe, maybe not without good reason.

It was impressive to go on the road last Saturday and dispatch Mississippi State as easily as it did.

Alabama has, uh, by appearance, been better thus far this season than it was to- in last season.

Kirby Smart's made it very clear a few times that he thinks this Alabama team, i- and he hasn't been emphatic in saying this, but he's been matter of fact in saying it, that he thinks this Alabama team is different and better and m- more physical now than it was a year ago.

And so maybe the love that they're getting and the hype they're getting, skyrotting- rocketing up the, uh, the, uh, polls, AP poll.

Uh, you've seen, you know, uh, skyrocketing up the Heisman odds, uh, k- for Keilan Russell.

There is just this very positive reconsideration of Alabama based on its start that's been hard not to notice.

And what we said is, "Hey, it, it's an interesting week where Alabama's gonna get a lot of rat poison." That's what we said to start the show on Monday.

And we said, "Would not surprise me at all if Nick Saban, in his role in the media now, does something to try to counterbalance that." And I heard from some of you after I said that of, "Well, BA, you don't realize that Saban's already been doing that.

He's already been trying to plant that seed." And it's been an interesting week because Nick Saban had the big documentary that dropped.

It's sort of The Last Dance style treatment of him, and he's been all over the place over the course of the, uh, you know, last few days.

And apparently on game day a couple of weeks ago, I guess this is a lead in to the Georgia-Oklahoma game, some of the folks who listen and watch us said, "BA, the anti, uh, you know, m- uh, what do you call it? The opposite of the rat poison that Alabama's been getting, Saban's been already trying to feed some of that to Georgia." So people told us that.

Uh, we went back to see if we could find it, and yeah, you know what? They were right.

Apparently, Nick Saban has already been trying to lay it on thick when it comes to what he expects to see from Georgia and how good he thinks Georgia is.

All of this feels like to many of us gamesmanship compared to the runaway train of hype that seems to follow Alabama wherever it goes right now.

This is what Nick Saban said on ESPN's College GameDay.

This is, like, a couple of weeks ago.

Uh, some folks pointed this out to us.

Well, I think Georgia's the most complete team in the country.

Good defense, good offense.

They can run it, they can throw it.

Good quarterback.

I think Georgia's the team to beat.

So listen, it, it's funny how we all are, whether you be a Georgia fan, an Alabama fan, or just any other kind of SEC fan.

For whatever reason, almost, almost no one who is a big enough college football fan to be consuming a lot of college football content, almost no one hears Nick Saban say that and is like, "Oh, it's kinda nice to hear Coach Saban, you know, pay us some respect.