Mark Richt: Georgia-Alabama is a face-off between ‘two monsters’
ATHENS — Mark Richt knows how intense the football action will be when Georgia and Alabama clash Saturday.
“It’s two monsters in the Southeast,” Richt told DawgNation during his appearance on the “On the Beat” podcast.
“Georgia-Alabama, it doesn’t get any bigger than that.”
College Football Playoff implications and SEC supremacy — not to mention UGA’s school-record 33-game home win streak — will be on the line when the teams meet in Sanford Stadium.
The Bulldogs and Crimson Tide have combined to win 10 of the past 11 SEC championships, including the past five.
Richt went 3-3 against Alabama during his tenure as Georgia’s head coach, winning his first three matchups before Nick Saban and his then-defensive coordinator Kirby Smart settled in to win the last three meetings.
Richt said there was one trait that carried over from each of the Georgia-Alabama games he coached in.
“When you play those guys, it’s so meaningful, just from a manhood type of point of view,” Richt said. “You know it’s a man’s game, it’s going to be physical, you can imagine, so those players know they have to bring their A game.
“It’s going to be a physical fight, so over the years we’ve had some wins and some losses, but it’s always a privilege to be in that type of game.”
Georgia was on the wrong end of the fight the last time the teams met in Athens, as the Crimson Tide served notice of what was to come of their season with a 38-10 win en route to a national championship season with current Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator.
Derrick Henry’s powerful running style was on display, as he rumbled for 148 yards and an early go-ahead touchdown against Georgia in his Heisman Trophy-winning season.
Smart’s defense all but sealed the win early in the third quarter when Eddie Jackson returned a Brice Ramsey interception 50 yards for a touchdown to put Alabama up 31-3.
It was one of four Georgia turnovers on the day, and the Tide blocked a punt for a touchdown.
It was a pivotal loss for the Bulldogs, who went on to lose two of their next three games, falling at Tennessee 38-31 and in Jacksonville against Florida, 27-3.
Richt closed out the season with five wins, including a 24-17 Taxslayer Bowl win over Penn State, but he was replaced by Smart as UGA’s head coach after the season.
Richt, however, broke hearts in Tuscaloosa years earlier on the front end of his 15 years coaching the Bulldogs, going 2-0 in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Georgia’s most recent win in Tuscaloosa came under Richt in 2007, when NFL Super Bowl champion Matthew Stafford welcomed Saban into the SEC by beating him 26-23 in overtime.
“I think we ran I-left, Y-return, 142 double-go, and I threw a touchdown to Mikey Henderson in the back left of the end zone. It was a go ball,” Stafford said when reflecting on the game in a 2020 interview.
“I remember it was a great catch by him. I remember celebrating like crazy after that one.”
Stafford ran through the season with a 10-2 mark before leading a dominant 41-10 Sugar Bowl win over Hawaii that led to a No. 2 final ranking.
Richt’s only home win over the Tide came in 2003, when the Bulldogs put up 31 points in the second quarter en route to a 37-23 win over a Mike Shula-coached Alabama team.
It was Richt’s second consecutive win over Shula. In 2002, Musa Smith pounded Alabama for 126 yards rushing in Tuscaloosa, and Billy Bennett kicked a 32-yard field goal with 38 seconds left to lift the Bulldogs to the 27-25 win en route to a 13-1 season capped by a 26-13 Sugar Bowl win over Florida State.
Georgia-Alabama series
(BCS era)
Kirby Smart (1-6)
2024: Alabama 41, Georgia 34 (Tuscaloosa)
2023: Alabama 27, Georgia 24 (SEC Championship)
2022: Georgia 33, Alabama 18 (CFP Championship)
2021: Alabama 41, Georgia 24 (SEC Championship)
2020: Alabama 41, Georgia 24 (Tuscaloosa)
2018: Alabama 35, Georgia 28 (SEC Championship)
2018: Alabama 26, Georgia 23 (OT, CFP Championship)
Mark Richt (3-3)
2015: Alabama 38, Georgia 10 (Athens)
2012: Alabama 32, Georgia 28 (SEC Championship)
2008: Alabama 41, Georgia 30 (Athens)
2007: Georgia 26, Alabama 23 (Tuscaloosa)
2003: Georgia 37, Alabama 23 (Athens)
2002: Georgia 27, Alabama 25 (Tuscaloosa)
About the Author
Mike is in his eighth season covering SEC and Georgia athletics for AJC-DawgNation and has 30 years of collegiate sports multimedia experience, 25 of them in the SEC including beat writer stops at Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee and now Georgia. Mike was named the National FWAA Beat Writer of the Year in January, 2018.
