Georgia or Alabama: Who is under the most pressure in the SEC showdown?

Kirby Smart likes to quote this quote from Billie Jean King: “Pressure is a privilege.” Smart first used it the season after the loss to Alabama in the 2018 national championship game, and it has remained in the program's ether despite everything that has happened since.

Kalen DeBoer also knows what pressure means when he succeeds Nick Saban. And as smooth as the transition has been so far, the biggest challenge will come on Saturday when Smart and Georgia arrive in Tuscaloosa.

So if pressure is a privilege, who has the most privilege this week? Seth Emerson and Kennington Smith III analyze the biggest game of the 2024 season (so far).

Blacksmith: That privilege belongs to the Dawgs. But that doesn't mean Alabama isn't under pressure, because fans are desperate to win, and if Georgia wins by a convincing margin, the reputation Alabama has built in three weeks will dwindle. But Georgia has more to lose in this game.

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Kirby Smart's 1-5 record against Alabama is well-documented. Georgia has a 49-2 record since Nov. 7, 2020, with two losses to Alabama. Many would argue Georgia's victory over the Tide in the 2022 national championship game was a changing of the guard, and there's no doubt the Dawgs have risen since that point, with two national championships since Alabama's last in 2020. But when these teams met in December and Georgia was the favorite, Alabama reasserted its dominance. Georgia is favored over Alabama for the fourth straight year on Saturday, but another loss would make it three losses in those four games.

Smart's only criticism as a coach may have been that he didn't have consistent success against Saban (who could?), but that hurdle is now gone. Saban's sudden retirement changed the perception of these programs nationally. Alabama took a step back without Saban, and Georgia is now at the forefront with the new top coach in the game. There's pressure to live up to that reputation, so I can't imagine Smart and Georgia, with their resumes over the last few years, aren't under more pressure to usher in a new era in this series against a first-year coach like DeBoer. A loss would change the discussion from “Kirby Smart had a Nick Saban problem” to “Georgia has an Alabama problem.”

Alabama defeated Georgia in the SEC Championship Game to secure a spot in the College Football Playoff. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

The question of who is “the benchmark” in college football always remains. Alabama was the benchmark by which other top programs were compared for over a decade, but Georgia's recent success has challenged that. It's something Alabama's players have used as motivation. It was definitely the case in last year's SEC Championship game and will likely be the case this weekend. I wonder if Georgia feels the same way. Is that title just as important to Georgia? Do the far-reaching implications of a win or a loss have the same impact?

Emerson: Does Georgia have more to lose? Oh, it would certainly be bad for Georgia to lose this game, especially with the College Football Playoff in mind — more on that in a minute — but psychologically, less so. That pressure is more on the other side.

DeBoer leaves the shadow of Saban's national team behind him, but if he loses to Georgia at home, you can imagine the heated reactions, fair or not. Fair would be that Georgia has outpaced Alabama. Unfair would be that DeBoer is outmatched. Smart and his program don't need to beat Alabama to fend off existential questions about the program. Smart has twice as many national championships as he has wins over Alabama. He needed to beat the Tide to win the first title, but not the next one.

Without Saban, one could argue that Alabama is just another top opponent rather than a mental nemesis.

The pressure on Georgia is definitely in the playoffs. Georgia still has to go to Texas and Ole Miss and at home against Tennessee. To get into the CFP, Georgia has to win two of those four important games — without blowing any of the others. If Georgia loses on Saturday, the road gets tougher. That's where the real pressure should be.

And that's the case for DeBoer, too: Alabama still plays Tennessee, LSU and Oklahoma and faces Missouri at home. A loss on Saturday greatly reduces the margin for error. And what would people say if DeBoer misses the CFP in his freshman year?

Blacksmith: It depends on how the game plays out. A clear Georgia win will put to rest any rumors of Alabama having a mental edge and put DeBoer in the spotlight with his first major loss as Alabama coach. But an Alabama win would improve his status early in his tenure, so there is a lot to gain in that regard. A close loss should You can take it in your stride, but this is not rational sport. And a moral victory is uncharacteristic of Alabama.

It's fair to ask if the mystique of this game is the same. This is a rivalry of circumstances: The successes of the two teams and the dynamic between Saban and Smart have made these recent, great matchups possible. Maybe that same fire will remain after Saturday, or maybe these programs will simply become two supernovas competing against each other and nothing more (like Georgia and/or Alabama versus Texas in years to come), but that all depends on the game.

You make a good point about the playoffs, and this is the first major meeting of the top five in this new era. It used to be that a loss at this point in the year meant the margin for error was close to zero, and a second loss was the death knell. Now it would be a tough loss, but not completely season-changing. For that reason, I'm just as excited to hear the conversations that happen after the game. Given what this all means for Alabama, missing the playoffs would be completely unacceptable to fans.

Our annual fan poll in July found that 70 percent of Alabama fans surveyed expect the team to play for the SEC Championship this season, while 72 percent predict a successful season with a CFP quarterfinal appearance or better. Alabama had its lowest preseason ranking since 2009 (No. 5) and was not predicted to play in the SEC Championship, so I see a clear divide between expectations inside and outside the fan base.

Emerson: And what about the quarterbacks in this game? Carson Beck's play at Kentucky, which wasn't bad but wasn't great either, has drawn some skeptics. The last time he played against Alabama, he struggled until late in the game. If Beck doesn't play as well on Saturday, he could slide down some NFL draft boards.

Jalen Milroe, on the other hand, continues to be a great long passer and scrambler and hasn't thrown any interceptions. (Neither has Beck.) But having faced Milroe before, it's safe to assume that Smart, Glenn Schumann and Co. will do their best to force Milroe to win by throwing lower-success-rate, mid-range passes while doing their best to keep the outside runs under control.

Blacksmith: Beck and Milroe have decided to return to their schools for games like this one, with the national championship, the Heisman Trophy and the NFL Draft on the line, and it's interesting how their situations have changed since they last met.

Milroe has had his share of doubters throughout his career, but his accomplishments are high. Statistically, he leads the most explosive offense in college football, with Alabama scoring the most touchdowns of 20-plus yards nationally (13). Georgia will have its best plan possible, helped by preparation heading into the off week, and if Milroe can outperform that, this could be his launching pad as conversations intensify about quarterback rankings in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Here's where Beck will have to stand up to Milroe if Georgia is to win: It's time to let it rip vertically. Alabama's defensive backs are vulnerable, but no quarterback has taken advantage. Beck can – and must – win the game. If he can do it, the Kentucky game will seem like a distant memory, but if not, the skepticism will only grow louder. But who will be the playmaker for Georgia? Alabama always seems to have a receiver, and freshman Ryan Williams looks like that player. Someone needs to step up for Georgia to fill the Brock Bowers-Ladd McConkey-AD Mitchell role.

We've talked about the impact of a loss on both sides, but which team's development/season prospects will change the most with a win?

Emerson: It's so hard to say because both teams have other important games where they can make up for the loss or negate the win. The winner gets a quality win to impress the CFP committee and I'm not sure the loser suffers unless it's a blowout.

An underrated benefit of playing this game so early in the season is the opportunity to see how these teams stack up against another (presumably) elite team without a loss automatically costing them a playoff spot. Three weeks after that showdown, Georgia travels to Texas and Alabama hosts Tennessee. Win or lose, both Georgia and Alabama will walk away with things they need to work on.

Georgia, of course, already had a crucial game at Kentucky, and maybe the Bulldogs will benefit from that. Or maybe Alabama's slight scare against South Florida and the need to play at Wisconsin will negate that. Or maybe Georgia already had a crucial game against Clemson and has just been going in circles since then.

That's the fascinating thing: This is the earliest regular-season game between Georgia and Alabama since 2007-08, when the visiting team won both games. We're so used to these teams playing in a winner-takes-all scenario. It's not like that this time. We can argue about which team has more pressure this week. But what if the answer is… neither?

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The athlete; Photos by Kirby Smart, left, and Kalen DeBoer: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images; Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)