Forget Jimbo Fisher. The Nick Saban-Kirby Smart rivalry matters more for SEC football

For a guy whose team went 8-4 last season, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher sure is receiving a bright spotlight.

Fisher earned a boost by signing the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class. Then, the headlines really poured in when Fisher called Nick Saban a narcissist and a false god after Saban’s unproven allegation that the Aggies bought every player on their roster.

Fisher vs. Saban is a particularly tasty spat, because they briefly removed the gloves when most coaches avoid publicly criticizing their peers.

But focusing on the Fisher-Saban rivalry ignores the top clash brewing in the SEC: Saban vs. Kirby Smart, another former assistant.

After Alabama and Georgia split two matchups last season, they’re again primed to tussle over SEC supremacy.

On this edition of "SEC Football Unfiltered," a podcast from the USA TODAY Network, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams debate Georgia’s staying power, assess how Smart moved out of Saban's shadow to find a space of his own, and argue that the Saban-Smart rivalry deserves more attention. What the rivalry lacks in barbs – the coaches seem to share a mutual respect – it makes up for with on-field prowess.

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For years, Smart used splendid recruiting and player development to establish that he's among the game's best coaches, but he needed a national championship to cement his status, Adams says. It helped that Georgia beat Alabama to win the title, leaving no need for an asterisk alongside Smart's feat.

The next task on Smart's checklist, Toppmeyer says, is proving Georgia can keep the machine rolling without much drop-off from one year to the next.

This is an area where Saban really separated himself from the pack.

Other teams have risen up for moments of greatness during Saban's Alabama dynasty (see 2019 LSU), but those programs faded after a top crop of talent departed in the NFL Draft.

TOPPMEYER: Nick Saban isn't losing his grip at Alabama. He's preparing for his finest hour

SEC EXPANSION TALK: Greg Sankey says SEC isn't too eager to expand more.

ADAMS: Why Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach are a measuring stick for SEC football success

Meanwhile, Alabama maintains its place among the elite despite regularly pumping out draftees.

Georgia will face this hurdle in 2022. After producing a record 15 draft picks, the Bulldogs join the Crimson Tide as frontrunners to make the College Football Playoff.

Those lofty expectations, despite the sweeping departures, signify how Georgia has positioned itself for the long haul. And with Saban saying he's not pondering retirement, this rivalry may be only getting started.

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Later in the episode

• Conference commissioners continue to plead for federal legislation to create uniform guardrails over the name, image and likeness landscape. Enough already.
  If college sports leaders are looking to Washington to solve what they see as an NIL problem, they might as well pray to a sun god, shake a Magic 8 Ball or rub a lucky rabbit's foot. It's likely to produce the same result. Time to face reality. Wheeling and dealing for athletes with NIL deals is here to stay.

• Sam Pittman captivated the scribes at SEC Media Days with a tale about the hog statues at his lake house, but he caught Toppmeyer's attention for something else: Pittman embraces the proposal to expand to a nine-game SEC schedule, and he'd be interested in playing newcomers Texas and Oklahoma (along with Missouri) annually.

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Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. John Adams is a senior columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel. You can subscribe to their podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Forget Jimbo Fisher. The Nick Saban-Kirby Smart rivalry matters more