7X champ Nick Saban once used coke bottle to explain Kirby Smart situation at Alabama 

Former Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban has mentored several individuals who went on to become successful head coaches in their own right in college football. Perhaps the most successful one has been Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart who has two national championships under his belt and is now widely regarded as the premier coach in college football after Saban's retirement in January.

Smart worked under Saban as a defensive backs coach for the LSU Tigers in 2004 and in the NFL as the safeties coach for the Miami Dolphins in 2005. He followed Saban to Tuscaloosa where he cut his teeth as the Alabama Crimson Tide's defensive coordinator for eight years (2007-2015).

In 2015 just before the SEC championship game, speculation was rife that Smart would be named the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs. When asked about it during a news conference, the seven-time national championship-winning coach gave an iconic answer using a Coke bottle as a prop.

"I know you would in some kind of way extract something out of this bottle that's not there, it's not there," Nick Saban said. "You all speculate and create things and then you want people to respond to it. Maybe this bottle can respond, cause I don't know anything more than that, I told you everything I know. So, you can ask the bottle but don't ask me."

It was not the last time that Nick Saban used a Coke bottle as a prop to emphasize a point that he was making. Last season, after quarterback Jalen Milroe's stellar performance against Middle Tennessee, a reporter asked the coach how the QB would perform in the next game and Saban picked up a Coke bottle to make his point AGAIN:

"This is a coke bottle, it's not a crystal ball," Saban said. “How do you think he’ll play? Do you have any idea? Hard to know. It’s what we all strive for though. We want everybody to play well and we’ll try to prepare him the best way we can, but that’s why you play the games.”

Nick Saban continues to support Kirby Smart

Nick Saban made Alabama the team to beat in college football until Kirby Smart's Georgia became the main challenger, having beaten the Crimson Tide in the 2021 national championship game.

Despite the rivalry between the two programs, Nick Saban revealed during an episode of ESPN's "College GameDay" that he texted his former defensive coordinator after his team lost to the Tide 41-34 in Week 5.

"I think it's tougher for when you have a big win," Nick Saban said. "I think when you have a loss and the players are disappointed, it's just human nature that everyone seems to respond better when you have a thunderbolt – something bad happens – everybody's willing to make the changes they need to make to get it right. And I think Georgia will respond in a really positive way."

Nick Saban has had a plethora of coaches who have now emerged from his shadow, but none as high profile as Kirby Smart who is currently carrying Saban's legacy forward.