Georgia football must emulate this Alabama team to stay dominant

The 2017 Alabama crew doesn’t rank as Nick Saban’s best crew ever, but it surely illustrates the indefatigable pressure the Crimson Tide has turn into throughout his tenure.

Months earlier than that season started, 10 Alabama gamers from the earlier 12 months’s crew have been chosen within the NFL Draft. Every of these draftees was picked throughout the first 4 rounds, with seven coming off the board throughout the first 55 picks. Defensive linchpins Jonathan Allen and Reuben Foster have been among the many departures.

If Alabama have been some other program coached by some other coach, at the least a smidge of regression would have been anticipated after enduring such depth of NFL departures.  

However as a result of Alabama is Alabama, and since Nick Saban is Nick Saban, the Tide sat atop the preseason polls in 2017. Alabama didn’t win the SEC, and even the division, however back-doored its approach into the Faculty Soccer Playoff and rallied to beat Georgia within the nationwide championship.

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Georgia has emerged as a twin energy within the SEC and final season captured its first nationwide title for the reason that 1980 season. For the Bulldogs to stay on high of school soccer, they need to emulate the 2017 Tide.

That’s to say, the Bulldogs should be undeterred after a wave of high expertise exits for the NFL.

Fourteen Georgia gamers have been invited to the NFL scouting mix, and if every is chosen, that may tie a file for many gamers picked from one program. LSU was the final program to realize that feat, sending 14 to the NFL from its 2019 championship crew that went undefeated.

However LSU shouldn’t be Alabama, and Ed Orgeron shouldn’t be Saban. To wit: The Tigers are 11-12 since that nationwide championship, and Orgeron is out of a job, as a result of withstanding a swath of expertise heading to the NFL isn’t as straightforward as Alabama makes it look.

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Alabama, in 2020, pulled off the same feat because the 2017 crew.

9 Alabama gamers have been drafted in 2020 , all of whom have been picked within the first three rounds. Then Alabama delivered its most dominant season ever, blitzing the competitors with a traditionally nice offense.

Alabama gained’t match Georgia’s draft output this 12 months however might produce as many as 10 or 11 picks – 12 draftees is Alabama’s file – and the Tide is predicted to be ranked preseason No. 1.

Thursday evening’s 32-pick first spherical will probably be a testomony to simply how proficient and dominant Georgia’s protection was final season.

The Jacksonville Jaguars might choose Travon Walker with the No. 1 total decide, and fellow defensive standouts Devonte Wyatt, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean and Lewis Cine might be a part of him within the first spherical.

Together with all that NFL-bound Georgia expertise, the Bulldogs additionally should adapt to a brand new defensive coordinator after Dan Lanning left to turn into Oregon’s coach.

How a lot a coordinator change impacts a program relies on this system and the standard of the top coach. Alabama has confirmed largely unfazed by the coordinator carousel. Its 2017 crew had a brand new offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll, after the departure of Lane Kiffin.

Alabama’s recruiting machine helps it stand up to employees adjustments and the annual departures to the NFL.

One star leaves, one other emerges.

In 2017, Allen’s departure created extra time for Raekwon Davis. Rashaan Evans took the place of Foster. And the crimson thresher stored harvesting victories.

Georgia is positioned to duplicate such persistence, for 2 causes.

One, the Bulldogs have a confirmed, long-tenured coach who isn’t going wherever. Secure management on the high of the group helps clean over adjustments elsewhere throughout the program. This marks 12 months 7 for Kirby Good at Georgia, making him the SEC’s third-longest-tenured coach behind Saban (getting into his sixteenth season at Alabama) and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops (getting into his tenth season).

Additionally, aside from Alabama, no program is recruiting as persistently properly as Georgia.

From 2017-21, Alabama and Georgia have been the one applications to signal a nationwide No. 1-ranked recruiting class, earlier than giving method to Texas A&M this 12 months. Through the previous six years, Alabama’s common class rating is 2.0 within the 247Sports Composite. Georgia’s is 2.3.

So, as Walker, Wyatt, Davis, Dean, Cine and others head to the NFL this week, the baton passes to the subsequent wave of expertise. Alabama executed a clear altering of the guard in 2017. The Tide did so once more in 2020, to an excellent larger diploma of success.

Persistent dominance, regardless of the extent of expertise turnover, is the subsequent field on Georgia’s guidelines.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Community. Electronic mail him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and observe him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. Should you take pleasure in Blake’s protection, take into account a digital subscription that can enable you entry to all of it.