Kirby Smart ranks 2010s Alabama squads above all current FBS teams
Kirby Smart had a "back in my day" moment that current college football fans might disagree with.
It's always fun to think about the good old days, which is what current Georgia head coach Kirby Smart recently did in an interview on "The Next Round Live". Smart flashed back to his days with Alabama , where he served as their defensive coordinator from 2008 through 2015. “I tell people all the time … our best Alabama teams — I’m going to go 2012, 13, 14, 15 — would beat the dog out of all these teams right now because they could practice different and they were deeper,” Smart said .
Smart made his point even more colorfully by using a movie reference. “The game has not changed that much from 2012 to 2025, but the roster has. And those teams would ‘Clubber Lang’ somebody.
They would just physically beat you," he continued. Kirby Smart believes that his best Alabama teams would DESTROY teams now 😳 "Our best Alabama teams - I'm gonna go 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 - would beat the DOG out of all these teams right now. " ( @NextRoundLive ) He won four National Championships in seven years as defensive… pic.
twitter. com/7L8xzGrkpP — Recruits Bama (@RecruitsBama) April 30, 2026 Smart won four national championships with the Crimson Tide and believes the landscape of college football is much different now than it was back then. "There’s not as much talent acquisition and as much talent on a team to be able to just develop and grow.