Jumbo Package: Kirby Smart, Pete Golding reminisce about Saban era

Rachel Rybicki (gymnastics) was also named the 2025 Elite 90 winner Jonathan Griz (men’s golf) highlighted the UA golfers as the two-year captain made an appearance at the 2025 U.S. Amateur qualifier

Great to see Wilson return to school and graduate. Mack is playing out in Arizona now, starting at MLB for the Cardinals.

The baseball team walked off Vandy in the series opener last night. Those two will play afternoon games today and tomorrow. Same deal for softball, who beat South Carolina 3-2 yesterday.

Kirby Smart shared a little nostalgia for the peak of the Saban era on the golf course yesterday.

“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. “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.

“And I look at our team now and I’ll go, ‘oh, man. Oh, God. We don’t have the depth we had. We’re not as good as we were.’ … And then we go out there and win the SEC. And I’m like, ‘it’s just relative.’ It’s relative.”

Rule changes in college football in recent years — including the institution of the transfer portal and the “look the other way” attitude regarding using massive NIL funds to attract recruits and transfers (which is technically against NCAA rules) — has led to even the best teams not having as much depth as they did a decade ago. You can no longer “stack” five-star recruits on a roster the way Saban did in his 2010s Alabama heyday and Smart did a half-decade ago at Georgia.

Pete Golding also spoke about his time at Alabama.

If and when Nick Saban walks into the Ole Miss facility, Golding hopes his former boss sees some reminders of the dynasty.

“The biggest thing that I took from him, the self-discipline piece of making kids do things that they really don’t want to do on a consistent basis, and that way that develops for Saturday,” Golding said. “But hopefully he sees a lot.”

Golding isn’t trying to build Saban’s dynasty 2.0, though. This is a different era of college football, and Golding is a different person.

“We’ve got music at practice and we didn’t at ‘Bama, so I’m sure (Saban would) bitch about that first,” Golding said with a smile.

The broader strokes, however, Golding wants to be like his days at Alabama from 2018 to 2022. Things like competitive character. Discipline. Effort in practice.

“I’m sure he’ll have plenty to correct me on,” Golding said.

Bruce Feldman and Ralph Russo report that optimism abounds in Tuscaloosa, mostly because of the defense.

Coaches are especially excited about the direction of the defense. The Tide have gotten bigger on that side of the ball, and we’re told it now looks more like what Alabama had been accustomed to under Saban, especially on the interior of the line. Last year, the starting lineup just wasn’t bulky, ranking in the SEC’s bottom four in height and weight. This season, coaches expect to rank in the upper half of the conference.

USC transfer Devan Thompkins (6-5, 300 pounds) turned heads in the spring, looking even better than some in Tuscaloosa were expecting. He brings physicality on a level the Tide have lacked at times over the past two seasons.

“He really had a good spring,” DeBoer, whose new deal is worth a total of $87.5 million over seven years, told The Athletic this week. “He’s very versatile. He can play inside and outside. He can get that push in the pocket with his strength but also has a little juice to come off the edge.”

Oregon transfer Terrance Green (6-5, 320) has been another big plus. The secondary is long and athletic and has five starters back.

If Thompkins is able to be that difference maker on the line that we’ve been missing, the defense should be outstanding.

Last, it sounds like the five-to-play-five eligibility concept is going to happen.

At least that will take some of the ambiguity out of things.

That’s about it for now. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.