For all the talk of inside knowledge, or the giggling about near force-like control that Alabama football coach Nick Saban holds over his assistants, both current and former, Saban believes that games are largely decided by the guys in between the white lines -- not necessarily the guys standing on the sidelines.
That includes Monday's College Football Playoff championship contest, in which longtime Saban disciple Kirby Smart will look to get one over on his former boss when his Georgia Bulldogs square off with a Crimson Tide team looking for its fifth national title under Saban.
No former assistant has managed to dethrone Saban (in fact he is 11-0 against former employees), but -- as the Alabama head coach noted this week in a CFP teleconference -- it's not as if he and Smart will wrestle each other under the lights of Atlanta's Mercedes Benz Stadium come 8 p.m. Monday.
This one will be more down to the players in red and black vs. those in crimson and white.
"I don't think the game is about the coaches. I think it's about the players," Saban said. "And I think in most of those games if the other guy had the players that we had, they might have beat us. So it's not about the coaches. I mean, I didn't catch any passes. I didn't make any tackles (in Monday's Sugar Bowl win over Clemson). I didn't do any of that. I mean, the players did it all. You prepare the players the best you can, but we've had pretty good teams around here, and most of the guys were going to rebuild programs, so maybe we're a little bit ahead of them, and if they had had our team, they'd have probably beat us."
That is exactly what Smart and his staff hope to prove on Monday -- that the process learned under Saban and imported (with some style changes) to Athens is now on par with the juggernaut in Tuscaloosa, at least this season.
And after helping mold Smart as a coach, Saban is not the least bit surprised that the head Bulldog is enjoying success at his alma mater.
"I was very impressed with him from day one. He was very bright. He learned quickly. I would hire him anytime, anywhere, on any staff based on the body of work that he did over the nine or ten years that he was with us. He did a fabulous job," Saban said of Smart, who went 8-5 in his first season as a head coach before leading the Bulldogs to their first national championship showdown in 35 years, including a scintillating, 54-48 double overtime defeat of Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl -- a game in which Georgia trailed 31-14 late in the first half.
"Georgia had a pretty good nucleus of players there. I think they won 10 games the year he took over [in 2015 under former coach Mark Richt]. Now, he has done a fantastic job of bringing those players along, getting those players to play with discipline, getting them to play together," Saban continued. "They play hard. They're very relentless, and I think this last game was sort of a reflection on the attitude that he's been able to instill to overcome adversity and come back in a game like they did against Oklahoma. They're playing extremely well, which is a reflection on his ability and his leadership to get everybody to buy in to doing things the way he wanted them done so that they could play at a very high level, and they certainly are. They have a lot of good players, and they're all playing at a very high level, and I think that's a compliment to the coach and the coaching staff."
They are words that may surprise a few hardcore fans -- those who look at any opponent like an uninvited house guest (or worse). But even someone as dedicated to winning and competition as Saban can't help but take some pride in watching former assistants excel.
"Well, you know, look, you don't have to dislike somebody to compete against them," Saban said. "I have a lot of respect for all the guys that worked for me and the guys that did a great job for us when they worked on our staff. I'm happy to see them doing well wherever they go, and when we have to play against them, I'm sure they're doing everything they can to beat us for their team and their players, and we're going to do the same with our players.
"It's not personal. I mean, it's just -- I don't dislike the guy that you play against. You compete against him and do the best you can and want to do the best you can for your players on your team."
Speaking of those players, Bulldogs quarterback Jake Fromm -- whose play and poise have stunned pundits throughout the 2017 campaign -- was once committed to Saban and the Alabama staff before signing for Smart's Bulldogs. And Saban is aware of the dimension the signal caller added to a Georgia offense that, while still run-heavy, has made a number of big plays through the air.
"​Well, we thought he was a fantastic player, very instinctive, very smart, makes great choices and decisions -- always puts his team in the best play that they can be in," Saban said of Fromm. "I think he does a lot of check-with-me's, which for a freshman quarterback probably demonstrates his knowledge of the game and preparation and intelligence. He's always been a -- was a fantastic passer and remains that way."
And now Saban and his Crimson Tide defense -- which dominated their 24-6 semifinal win over Clemson -- will do its best to counter Fromm and a Georgia offense led by senior running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. It is the kind of challenge Saban has relished, and excelled at many times over, though he admits that this one will require a special effort against a fellow SEC foe that also features plenty of talent on defense.
"You know, I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for the competition in our league, and I don't think there's any question about the fact that Georgia is maybe the best team in the country right now the way they're playing," Saban said. "It's going to be a real challenge for us to be able to stop them and be able to move the ball against them and play effectively."
