Last Call | Kirby Smart: Old Alabama Teams Would “Beat The Dog Out Of” Teams Today

The Next Round

Football, News, Basketball, Sports, Sports News

4.9 • 890 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart made waves with his comments about the state of modern college football — and Mick Gillespie and former Alabama quarterback Jake Coker are breaking it all down. Smart said the elite Alabama teams from 2012–2015 would “beat the dog out of” today’s college football teams because of one major difference: depth. He believes the game itself has not changed as much as the rosters have, with today’s programs forced to play younger, less-developed players because NIL, the transfer portal, and roster turnover have made it harder to build long-term depth. Jake Coker gives his perspective as a former Alabama quarterback who played under Nick Saban and lived the “Saban Standard” firsthand. Coker discusses how NIL and the transfer portal have changed the culture of college football, why he believes the sport now feels more like “semi-pro football,” and how the loss of player development, senior leadership, and locker-room brotherhood has changed the way championship teams are built. The conversation also dives into Coker’s memories of Alabama practices under Nick Saban and Scott Cochran, including the extreme physicality, mental toughness, and internal accountability that separated the Crimson Tide during its dynasty run. Coker also shares a classic story about one of Saban’s most intense practice rants and how Alabama’s championship culture was built from the inside out. Are Kirby Smart and Jake Coker right? Would the best Alabama teams from the Saban dynasty dominate today’s college football? Or has NIL, the transfer portal, and modern roster management simply changed the sport forever? Topics include: 🏈 Kirby Smart’s comments on Alabama’s roster depth 🏈 Would 2012–2015 Alabama beat today’s college football teams? 🏈 Jake Coker on NIL and the transfer portal 🏈 How college football became “semi-pro football” 🏈 The Saban Standard at Alabama 🏈 Nick Saban practice stories 🏈 Why roster depth and senior leadership mattered 🏈 Georgia football, Alabama football, and the future of the sport #AlabamaFootball #KirbySmart #JakeCoker #NickSaban #GeorgiaFootball #CollegeFootball #SECFootball #TransferPortal #NIL #RollTide SUBSCRIBE: @NextRoundLive - / @nextroundlive FOLLOW TNR ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7zlofzLZht7dYxjNcBNpWN FOLLOW TNR ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-next-round/id1797862560 WEBSITE: https://nextroundlive.com/ MOBILE APP: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-next-round/id1580807480 SHOP THE NEXT ROUND STORE: https://nextround.store/ Like TNR on Facebook: / nextroundlive Follow TNR on Twitter: / nextroundlive Follow TNR on Instagram: / nextroundlive Follow everyone from the show on Twitter: Jim Dunaway: / jimdunaway Ryan Brown: / ryanbrownlive Lance Taylor: / thelancetaylor Scott Forester: / scottforestertv Tyler Johns: /TylerJohnsTNR Sponsor the show: sales@nextroundlive.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What do you say, everybody? Welcome to Last Call. That's Jay Coker. I'm Mick Gillespie. Great to see you guys here. A weekend edition of our show. But we had something really, really good to talk about today. And that was given us by our friends at the next round. Hey, we're part of the next round. You guys make sure you're a subscriber to the next round. Thank you for hanging out with us and being a part of the show. and let's get this show started.
0:22.2	Let me play the open. And let's get this
0:21.5	show started. Let me play the open and then we'll get right into Kirby Smart on the next round and
0:26.4	our reaction to that. All right, there he is Jake Coker National Championship winning quarterback 2015.
0:46.1	And the reason I'm saying that, by the way, I'm Mick Gillespie.
0:49.2	Brought to you by Pearl River Resort, Philadelphia, Mississippi, the Azaleas, the Oaks,
0:52.8	The Oaks, two amazing golf courses at Dancing Rabbit Golf Course.
0:56.1	It's the Augusta you can play.
0:58.2	Less than two hours from Tuscaloosa, two and change from Birmingham.
1:02.5	I'm talking about championship level courses.
1:05.4	My buddy, Phil Hastings, probably watching this show, flew in.
1:08.6	He works for the San Francisco Giants.
1:10.4	He's there as we speak with a group of friends staying on the course at the villa
1:17.1	that they have on the course at Dancing Rabbit.
1:20.0	He was at Philip M's the other day when he called me.
1:22.4	And I said, next time I go to Philip M's with my friend Jake, I'm not paying.
1:30.0	Yeah, yeah'm not paying. There you, kiss my ass.
1:35.4	We've got too much to get into today to relive the mullet toss.
1:39.9	But let me put our friends on here and our compadres, Ryan Brown, Jim Dunaway. They got Kirby Smart on here. And this is so worth talking about. I mean, this clip's gone viral. I'm sure everyone here's already seen it. But just in case, let's go ahead and listen to what he says. Early in Georgia to now. How much has the depth changed on your roster main the one to two two to
2:02.0	three I tell people all the time it's like our early our our best albottom teams I'm going to
2:06.2	2012 13 14 15 would beat the dog out of all these teams right now because they could practice
2:13.3	different and they were deeper okay the the game has not changed that much from
	...

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