ATHENS — Peter Burns has no problem looking ahead and predicting Georgia will win the SEC Championship Game and College Football Playoffs.
Burns, for that matter, is predicting Kirby Smart maintaining greatness even beyond this season.
“If you told me who is going to have more national championships underneath their belt, Nick Saban or Kirby Smart, I would absolutely put my money on Kirby Smart,” Burns said during his appearance Monday night on the Ingles On the Bear Show.
“I ain’t picking against Georgia until they lose a game,” he said. “I don’t care if its the rest of the season, I don’t care if its 2025, I don’t care if its 2031.”
Saban, 72, has won seven national championships -- four of his six at Alabama came with Smart as his defensive coordinator and chief recruiter.
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Smart, 47, played for the national championship three of his first seven seasons as a head coach, winning two of them and currently working on a third.
Burns, one of the most quick-witted and brilliant talents of the media world, is dialed into college football like few others and his opinion ranks among the most valued.
And he’s all Georgia, for now.
“Very rarely do you get a chance to live through history, and that’s what we’re having a chance to do right now watching what Kirby has built in Athens,” Burns said.
“Right now, I’m picking Georgia because in Kirby I trust, until you prove me that you can’t get it done.”
To Burns’ point, Smart has gone where no SEC coach has gone before in leading Georgia to three consecutive 8-0 conference marks.
The Bulldogs (11-0), the two-defending national champions, finish the regular season with a 7:30 p.m. game against a bowl-eligible Georgia Tech program on Saturday night.
Burns, for all his hype on Georgia, did allow that SEC West Division champ Alabama could present some matchup challenges.
“I will say this, I think it’s a closer game than we would have thought midway through the season,” Burns said, “because if you look at where Georgia has had some issues, we saw (Auburn QB) Payton Thorne hit the outside zone read run pretty good on them, that gave them some issues, (and) Brady Cook moved the pocket well for Missouri to a certain extent.
“These dual-threat quarterbacks give them a little bit of pressure, but at the end of the day,
it’s still Georgia’s world and we’re all paying rent for it in the college football landscape.”
Indeed, Burns asserted, even if Alabama star quarterback Jalen Milroe gets loose and gives the Crimson Tide a lead — something seven of eight SEC opponents have done against UGA — Burns believes UGA will overcome it.
“Georgia is only getting bigger, better and stronger, and that’s the scary part of what’s happening right now,” Burns said.
“I liken Georgia football right now to a military trained sniper, the heartbeat never gets above 65 or 70, no matter what happens, there’s no panic … they are a well-oiled machine right now, and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.”