The pressure's on Kirby and the opportunity belongs to Kalen: On the Line

Kalen DeBoer braces for the biggest game of his career. I know, I know. Kalen DeBoer played for a national championship this calendar year. He won three of them at Sioux Falls, and played for a fourth. But none of those games were Alabama-Georgia.

As we're told, things just mean more in the SEC. In all seriousness, someone plays for a national title every year, but the opportunity to end a 42-game regular season winning streak and a conference-record 28 game SEC winning streak only comes around once a career. 

Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) is Kirby Smart's 114th game at Georgia, and DeBoer's fourth at Alabama. 

Granted, DeBoer is not exactly starting from scratch considering the ingredients Nick Saban left behind as well as what he was able to bring over from Washington, but still. DeBoer in his fourth game should not be able to beat Smart in his 114th. 

Considering Georgia and Texas still have to play each other, the opportunity for DeBoer and the Tide on Saturday night is to take a clear shot at at a No. 1 ranking, an undefeated regular season, and the top seed in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff while ending the longest regular-season winning streak in SEC history. 

That's not the kind of victory coaches get to strive for every single year.

DeBoer won three titles at Sioux Falls and played for one at Washington, but a win Saturday could put him on a direct path to multiple championships in Tuscaloosa. 

All the pressure Saturday night's on Kirby Smart. As stated above, it's Game 114 vs. Game 4. He's the first road favorite at Bryant-Denny since Mark Richt and company earned that designation way back in 2007. (See below.)

Georgia also has to visit Texas and Ole Miss later this season, plus host Tennessee. There's a path where a victory sets Alabama on a course to play to earn a No. 1 seed, and also a path where Georgia could miss the Playoff entirely. 

There's also the Alabama Factor at play. Smart is 1-5 against his former employer while at Georgia. That also means he was 1-5 against Saban, but there's no excuse at this juncture of their respective tenures for him to be 0-1 against DeBoer.

Which means all the pressure's on Kirby. Something tells me he's perfectly fine with that. 

The history of Bama-Georgia tells us something monumental will happen on Saturday night. Nearly every meeting between these titans since 2007 has had an outcome that impacted, decided or reverberated throughout that season and beyond. And nearly every time, Alabama has won. 

2007: The final time Saban was ever an underdog in his home stadium. Best remembered as the Britney Spears game. (Not to be confused with the Katy Perry game, also another monumental Saban-era Alabama loss.)

2008: No. 8 Alabama 41, No. 3 Georgia 30. The Tide led 31-0 at halftime. The beginning of the Saban Dynasty.

2012: No. 2 Alabama 32, No. 3 Georgia 28. The de facto BCS National Championship, played at the SEC Championship. Mark Richt comes five yards short of his forever-elusive national championship.

2015: No. 13 Alabama 38, No. 8 Georgia 10. The Tide were underdogs for the first time in 72 games and, in a driving rainstorm, went to Sanford Stadium and ended the Richt era at UGA.

2017: No. 4 Alabama 26, No. 3 Georgia 23 (OT). 2nd-and-26.

2018: No. 1 Alabama 35, No. 4 Georgia 28. Fourth-and-11.

2020: No. 2 Alabama 41, No. 3 Georgia 24. Pretty much the only game in this series not known by a one-sentence short hand. 

2021: No. 3 Alabama 41, No. 1 Georgia 24. Alabama had already lost to unranked Texas A&M and needed four OTs to survive unranked Auburn the week prior. Now it seemed like they were poised for a second straight national title, once again at Georgia's expense.

2021: No. 3 Georgia 33, No. 1 Alabama 18. Pretty much the only thing keeping Georgia fans from jumping off buildings. Ending the 41-year title drought against your biggest antagonist surely evoked tears from men who hadn't shown emotion in decades.

2023: No. 8 Alabama 27, No. 1 Georgia 24. In his final SEC game, Saban ends Georgia's run at a 3-peat. 

Saturday will be just the fifth regular-season Alabama-Georgia game in 21 seasons and -- who knows? -- perhaps the first of three meetings this season.

By the way, I like the Tide to win on Saturday. Alabama 28, Georgia 20.

Additional Games:

-- Virginia Tech at No. 7 Miami (7:30 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN): Virginia Tech is 2-2 on the season, and 0-2 against the Power 4. If Brent Pry's team couldn't beat Vanderbilt or Rutgers, it's tough to see them winning on South Beach.

-- Washington at Rutgers (8 p.m. ET Friday, Fox): Nothing says Big Ten like a Friday night game between Washington and Rutgers. Rutgers started each of the last three seasons 3-0, and lost Game 4 all three times. Washington has been sneaky-stout defensively, placing ninth nationally at 3.8 yards per play, including a stout 4.4 yards per pass attempt. We'll see if the defense makes the 2,800 mile trip to Piscataway.

-- Kentucky at No. 6 Ole Miss (noon ET, ABC): Ole Miss and its national-best 55 points per game should meet some resistance for the first time this season, but there's no chance Kentucky scores enough to keep up with the Rebels.

-- Minnesota at No. 12 Michigan (noon ET, Fox): This game will be Michigan's 18th August/September game since the beginning of the 2021 season -- all but one of them at the Big House, including all five this season. Maddening. Anyway, the over/under of Michigan pass attempts in this game is 10.5, and I'm taking the under. Minnesota has won this game four times since 1968.

-- Nebraska at Purdue (noon ET, Peacock): Purdue has made a strong argument for worst Power 4 team, with a passing game that hit 18-of-41 attempts for 180 yards (4.4 per) with two touchdowns and three picks in combined 104-28 losses to Notre Dame and Purdue. 

-- Northern Illinois at NC State (noon ET, The CW): NC State is last among Power 4 teams at 37.8 points per game allowed. NIU is 31st in yards per play but only 69th in scoring, largely because they're 107th in red zone touchdown percentage. If the Huskies can convert yards into points better than they did against Notre Dame and Buffalo, they'll win. 

-- South Florida at Tulane (noon ET, ESPNU): Is this an AAC Championship preview? Or at least a semifinal game? USF gets Memphis next week, while Tulane closes with the Tigers. Both teams have lost twice to Power 4 teams; I think both are good, but we'll start learning for sure on Saturday.

-- Texas State vs. Sam Houston at Houston (3 p.m. ET, ESPN+): Texas State and Sam Houston is a mini-version of UT-A&M -- this rivalry played annually from 1915 to 2011, was killed by conference realignment, then revived by conference realignment. (Sam Houston and Texas State are not in the same conferences, but they're both FBS now. Just go with it, Well Actually Guy.) This game will be played at Houston's NRG Stadium in what should be a raucous atmosphere.

-- Wisconsin at No. 13 USC (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): USC can either shrug off last week's loss to Michigan, or allow it to beat them twice if the Trojans aren't able to meet the physical challenge from the Badgers. This is a game USC should win. Should.

-- No. 15 Louisville at No. 16 Notre Dame (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC): Notre Dame is playing for its season with each game now, while Louisville either has to win this game or win the ACC to reach the Playoff. If Louisville wins this game and wins the ACC, we could be looking at the No. 3 seed on Selection Sunday.

-- No. 21 Oklahoma at Auburn (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC): Auburn quarterbacks look to get the tread marks off their back from their own head coach, while Oklahoma pins the hopes of its season on a 196-pound true freshman quarterback making his first start. OU still has five AP top-15 opponents ahead; Auburn only has three, but the Tigers would be 2-3 with a loss, with trips to No. 2 Georgia and No. 11 Missouri in their next two games. Suffice to say: the loser of this game will be the most miserable fan base in college football. Oklahoma is third nationally in turnover margin, Auburn is third-to-last.

-- Arkansas vs. No. 24 Texas A&M at Arlington, Texas (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): A&M is 11-1 against the Hogs since joining the SEC; aside from their 3-0 mark against Vanderbilt and 1-0 against Kentucky, it's the Aggies' best SEC record by far. Both teams are in the neighborhood of 250 rushing yards per game, so the team that stops the run will win a close game.

-- TCU at Kansas (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+): A meeting of the two most disappointing Big 12 teams, and an out-and-out elimination game considering both sport 0-1 conference records. Related: both teams are 110th or lower in turnover margin. They can't both lose turnovers to each other, so the team that wins that, wins the game.

-- Colorado at UCF (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox): Colorado's defense is much improved... from the 110s nationally to the 80s. UCF leads the nation in rushing. Don't over-complicate this, Gus.

-- Fresno State at UNLV (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1): Certainly the most anticipated UNLV game ever, no? All eyes of the nation -- okay, one eye -- will be on the performance of Hajj-Malik Williams, who steps in for Matthew Sluka in what will surely be the latest chapter of the biggest story in college football right now. Here's a pre-story line to ponder: If Williams goes 15-of-20 for 200 yards, do we ever hear Sluka's name again?

-- Georgia Southern at Georgia State (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU): What a better way for Dell McGee to win over the Georgia State fan base than to treat Panther Nation to consecutive home wins over an SEC team and their in-state rival? Consequently, can Clay Helton (14-16, 6-10 Sun Belt) afford a second Modern Day Hate loss in three tries?

-- North Carolina at Duke (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2): Duke has yet to allow more than 21 points four games into the Manny Diaz era. North Carolina surrendered more than Duke's season total on Saturday alone.

-- Mississippi State at No. 1 Texas (4:15 p.m. ET, SEC Network): The Longhorns' SEC debut sees them 5-plus touchdown favorites against a Mississippi State team clawing to avoid the SEC cellar, in their first game with freshman backup Michael Van Buren, Jr., taking starter's snaps. 

-- Stanford at No. 17 Clemson (7 p.m. ET, ESPN): Stanford pulled out a late win at Syracuse last week, which is important because asking a college team to win back-to-back cross-country games seems impossible. Clemson has played three games so far. Their scoring outputs: 3, 66, 59. 

-- No. 19 Illinois at No. 9 Penn State (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): Normally I'd accuse Bret Bielema of being purposefully obtuse in calling out Penn State for asking for "White Out energy... whatever the hell that means." But I'm Team Bielema here. Penn State pre-selected Washington as their White Out game, while hosting a top-20 Illinois at night on Saturday. Did I mention Penn State is 11-8 in White Out games? Most overblown tradition in college sports.

-- Florida State at SMU (8 p.m. ET, ACC Network): Does Florida State see itself as being "above" a conference game with SMU? Yes. Would that make an FSU loss here hilarious? Absolutely. The Mustangs out-rushed TCU 238-65 in their win last week, while FSU struggles to run the ball and stop the run.

-- New Mexico at New Mexico State (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+): In the 114th edition of the Rio Grande Rivalry, New Mexico holds a 73-35-5 all-time edge but the teams are 7-7 since 2009. In its fifth game, New Mexico is still looking for its first win under Bronco Mendenhall.

-- Washington State at No. 25 Boise State (10 p.m. ET, FS1): Six players nationally are averaging at least 10 yards per carry. Their number of carries to date: 20, 21, 12, 16, 34, and then Ashton Jeanty with 56. No other player with at least 50 carries averages 8.5 per carry, and Jeanty's at nearly 10.5. Wazzu's John Mateer, meanwhile, is third nationally with 1,527 scrimmage yards (1,102 passing/425). He's in the top 15 nationally in passing and rushing. 

-- Arizona at No. 10 Utah (10:15 p.m. ET, ESPN): I like Utah to shut down Arizona's one-dimensional offense. So, naturally, look for Arizona to run for 300 in a Wildcats win.

-- No. 8 Oregon at UCLA (11 p.m. ET, Fox): Pac-12 After Dark has evolved into Big Ten Well After Dark. They're giving us college football until 2:30 a.m. ET on a major television network. It may not be a good college football game, but it's a game.