There has been a bit of a feud going on between potential graduate transfer Maurice Smith and Alabama coach Nick Saban. The defensive back has graduated and will be eligible to play right away wherever he ends up going. He wants to reunite with his former defensive coordinator Kirby Smart at Georgia, but Saban is having none of that.
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SEC coaches reserve the right to block transfers from going to whatever the school the coach chooses. Naturally, Saban wouldn't want to potentially see Smith again in an SEC Championship setting since he would intimately know Alabama's schemes. However, most coaches would give in to demands for a graduate transfer since they will only get to play one more year.
RELATED: Maurice Smith being denied transfer from Alabama
Saban is still refusing to let Smith go to Georgia despite some sit downs and meetings they've had. According to AL.com, there was one meeting last week in particular where the Smiths tried to meet with Saban and Maurice's mother told her son and husband to leave the room after 20 minutes since it was going nowhere.
According to Samyra Smith, it ended with an angry Saban repeating that he doesn't feel like it's in Smith's best interest to leave Alabama, that he doesn't think Smith should be able to transfer to another SEC school and that he's not going to do something that he doesn't agree with.
Samyra Smith said Saban closed with "That's all I've got to say," then got up and left the room, leaving her and the member of the compliance department surprised and sitting in Saban's office by themselves.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Smith's mother looked at the compliance official, smiled and said, "Alright. I guess the meeting is over."
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Sounds like that meeting went real well. That was also a total lack of respect from Saban and completely unnecessary. There was absolutely no need to storm out of the room like a child who didn't get what he wanted and Georgia isn't even likely to play Alabama this season anyway. This really should be a non-issue and Smith should already be on campus for fall workouts.
[h/t Yahoo.com]
