No. 4 Alabama is set to host #2 Georgia in a titanic match, a match that has often been a fixture in the postseason in recent years.

This year’s matchup won’t have quite the same stakes, as an expanded playoff field that offers twelve teams the opportunity to make the postseason dilutes the impact of any outcome. Still, it is a match that both teams want to win.

And everyone around the conference will be watching. Ole ma’am coach Avenue Kiffin joined ESPN College GameDay on Saturday, where he was asked to pick a winner. He obliged.

“Ooooh. Shoot, what is Georgia, Kirby (smart) are you on a 40-game regular season win streak? Kiffin asked. “But you know, that’s Alabama and they’re playing at Nick Saban Field tonight, so I gotta go to Roll Tide!”

Kiffin, who spent time on staff Nick Saban at Alabama, had respect for the old coach and his thoughts on the program as it gets used to a new coach in Kalen DeBoer. And both have made one thing clear: the transition has been silky smooth.

“Well, I don’t think Kalen needs any advice from me,” Kiffin said. “He’s done a great job wherever he’s been. That’s going to be an incredible environment tonight. I’m sure it’s already there. And when you have two of the best programs in America playing, that should be very exciting for you.”

Kalen DeBoer talks about the transition in Alabama

Kalen DeBoer recently talked about his transition to Alabama on College GameDaywhich gives a little insight into the exact moments when the transition felt the most real… and perhaps the most tenuous.

But Saban helped put him at ease.

“I think it was probably the morning where everything happened, and I just think that conversation I had with the coach, I just felt, you know, just feeling how he felt about things,” DeBoer said. “Knowing that I had some kind of peace in my heart, that the transition would be smooth and that I would have the grace of him to be able to go and take over and still be able to embrace everything that he is ready for this program.”

The former Washington The coach revealed how nervous he felt coming into that first team meeting, even though he knew he had Saban’s blessing.

“I knew when I walked in that Friday night and met those guys, I knew it was going to be dead quiet and they had a lot of questions,” DeBoer said. “There were a lot of emotions and things that they were going through, and it was just meeting them where they were at that moment, you know, and just really trying again, and using the word embrace a lot, but there it went actually.”

Alabama has embraced DeBoer quite well so far, with a 3-0 start and excitement for tonight’s game against Georgia.

The match kicks off at 7:30 PM ET with a broadcast on ABC.