Kirby Smart's Last Locked Door: No. 2 Georgia Heads to No. 6 Alabama Chasing Its First Tuscaloosa Win Since 2007

Kirby Smart has built Georgia into the program everyone else in the SEC measures itself against. Even his rival on the other sideline this week credits him with "building the program up." But there's one thing Smart hasn't done at Georgia. He's never won a game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Georgia hasn't won in Tuscaloosa since 2007. Smart is 0-2 there. On Saturday night he gets another shot, and the stakes are about as high as an October game gets.

No. 2 Georgia visits No. 6 Alabama on Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Both teams are 5-0. The winner moves to the front of the SEC race and the playoff chase, and the loser has to wait for a rematch it can't count on. President Donald Trump will be in the stands. By Monday, the lead-up was already loud.

DeBoer sets the tone: "Toughest challenge by far"

Kalen DeBoer didn't try to downplay it at his Monday news conference. "Georgia, you know, they are going to be our toughest challenge by far up to this point," Alabama's coach said, calling Smart's program one that keeps "jumping on top of teams" in the first half and sustaining it.

This will be DeBoer's fourth game against Georgia, and he said familiarity works both ways. "There's a lot of the same faces," he said, "and you see the little tweaks and little things that they continue to do to work around their personnel." His biggest worry was the start. This Georgia team, he said, has "just jumped all over people" and comes "out of the gate swinging, and so you got to be ready for that."

On the injury report, DeBoer said edge rusher Justin Hill is working back from a lower-body injury and "more than likely" won't play Saturday.

He was also asked how a presidential visit could affect in-game communications. DeBoer pointed out that Alabama already worked through communication issues against Kentucky this season, and said both sides of the ball have talked about "what we would do if those situations happen."

Keelon Russell, five games in, gets his biggest test

Alabama arrives after its loudest statement of the season, a 56-23 win at then-No. 16 Mississippi State. The 56 points were the most Alabama has ever scored on the road against a top-25 team. Keelon Russell went 16-of-22 for 285 yards and three touchdowns. That came a week after he threw for 365 yards and accounted for five touchdowns in a 49-18 win over South Carolina. Voters moved the Tide up one spot to No. 6 on Sunday.

DeBoer said his quarterback stays "calm, cool, and consistent" and is "on top of every little detail of the game plan," which he said matters most at the end of halves and in close finishes. "Obviously, you know, we had multiple times against these guys," DeBoer said. "It's came down to the wire, and you got to execute in the critical moments."

ESPN's Alex Scarborough wrote Monday that Alabama's path to winning runs through the line of scrimmage. That means a three-back rotation of Daniel Hill and freshmen Trae'shawn Brown and EJ Crowell, and transfer defensive linemen Devan Thompkins and Terrance Green slowing down Nate Frazier. His warning was about the deep ball, because Alabama has been vulnerable to vertical passing this season.

Georgia's quarterback is heating up at the right time

That's where Gunner Stockton comes in. Georgia was flat for a half against a Vanderbilt team playing without quarterback Jared Curtis, leading by just seven at the break, then pulled away for a 38-14 win. Stockton had his best game of the season: 25-of-32 for 295 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Georgia entered that game averaging 54.8 points, and none of its five opponents has scored more than 20.

Georgia picked up six first-place votes in Sunday's AP poll and stayed No. 2 behind Texas. After the win, Stockton talked up the atmosphere in Tuscaloosa as exactly the kind of game a player looks forward to.

Smart, as usual, refused to make it bigger than any other week. "They're all big," he said after the Vanderbilt game. "There's not one that's not big." He added that his program stays consistent and lets the media "deal with the highs and lows." Defensive tackle Jordan Hall said it more simply. "Ain't no pep talk for this," he said. "It's just go play."

The history Georgia keeps running into

Smart can call it just another week, but the history says otherwise. These teams have played seven times in the past six years. Georgia has won two of them, both in postseason games, and none at Bryant-Denny. Only two visiting teams have won in Tuscaloosa in that span: Texas in 2023 and Oklahoma in 2025.

Georgia's last trip there ended in a game Alabama fans still bring up. In 2024, Jalen Milroe hit Ryan Williams for a 75-yard touchdown with 2:18 left, and Zabien Brown sealed it with an interception in the end zone against the then-No. 2 Bulldogs. Trump attended that one too. Saturday will be the fourth Alabama-Georgia game he has attended as president, president-elect or Republican nominee.

Last season, Alabama won in Athens, handing Georgia a rare home loss. Then Georgia won the rematch in the SEC Championship Game, Smart's first win over DeBoer and only his second ever against Alabama. Georgia lost its next game in the Sugar Bowl.

Why this one matters more than an October game should

In a 12-team playoff, with commissioners openly discussing 24, one October loss doesn't end anyone's season, as 247Sports' Jordan D. Hill pointed out. But seeding and first-round byes still get decided in games like this, and the winner will be in the lead pack of the playoff race. This week's only other ranked-vs-ranked game, No. 21 UCLA at No. 13 Oregon, doesn't come close in profile. No. 1 Texas also plays Oklahoma the same Saturday, so the top of the poll could look very different by Sunday.

For Alabama, it's a chance to prove the 5-0 start is real against the best team on its schedule so far. For Georgia, it's the one stadium Smart still hasn't figured out. He'll keep saying it's just another game. He's lost there twice, and Saturday night, in front of a president and an unbeaten Alabama team that just scored 56 on the road, he gets a third try.