Kirby Smart’s response to another Alabama loss should keep Georgia fans up at night

Georgia fans have reason to be frustrated despite yet another solid start to the college football season. The Bulldogs dropped their 10th game in the last 11 meetings to their SEC rivals in the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, failing to capitalize on several late chances in a 24-21 loss. While the Dawgs remain in decent shape to make the College Football Playoff, you'd think this sort of performance would set off some alarm bells internally.

But head coach Kirby Smart doesn't seem to have as much concern over that trend, considering his personal record against Alabama while leading Georgia is 1-7.

"I mean, what's everybody else's record against 'em, you got it?" he retorted to a reporter during his post-game press conference. "I don't lose sleep over that because those games have been championship-caliber games... I'm going to be happy go lucky if our team comes back and played well. That's what I worry about."

Well, Kirby, the whole point of playing a football game is to ... win the game. Congrats if you think your team played well, though, I guess.

Kirby Smart is starting to spout Dabo Sweeney-esque delusions after another loss to Alabama

If Smart's deluded optimism sounds familiar, it's because another significant college football head coach just a few hours to the north of Athens has made similar comments just this year.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was touting his success at the program after dropping an avoidable Week 3 heartbreaker to Georgia Tech, bragging like his team hasn't been an inconsistent conundrum for the last three seasons.

"Listen, I know everyone is frustrated, but 17 years we have had one bad season," Swinney told reporters on Sept. 16. "The worst season we’ve had in 14 years is nine wins and it happened one time."

Like, okay? College football is a game of "what have you done for me lately," and guys like Swinney and Kirby may be getting too comfortable resting on their laurels. I'm not saying they're on hot seats (although at 1-3, Clemson might be getting a tad warm for October), but they certainly aren't immune from scrutiny and criticism.

Smart and Georgia have just a little bit more leeway because it's hard to see the Bulldogs missing the College Football Playoff due to a loss to Alabama. However, just as Crimson Tide fans will view a season as a failure just for losing to Auburn, Georgia fans have every right to want something to change so their team doesn't keep losing to the Tide. Kirby should be on notice.