The Georgia Bulldogs opened the season ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll. The defending national champions reclaimed the No. 1 spot after defeating then-No. 1 Tennessee, 27-13, in Week 10 of the regular season and have remained in the top spot ever since.
After Saturday’s come-from-behind, 42-41 win over No. 4 Ohio State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl semifinal, the SEC-champion Bulldogs (14-0) will put their perfect season on the line against No. 3 TCU in the College Football Playoff Championship game Monday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California (7:30 p.m., ESPN).
The only loss for the Horned Frogs (13-1) this season came Dec. 3 against Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship game. TCU shot to a big lead, then held on late to knock off No. 2 Michigan, 51-45, in their Fiesta Bowl semifinal in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday.
The teams will meet for only the fifth time Monday. Georgia has won the previous four meetings, the most recent a 31-23 victory in the 2016 Liberty Bowl.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for TCU and their program and coach (Sonny) Dykes,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said this week. “What a tremendous job he’s done there. I had the great fortune of seeing him and (quarterback) Max Duggan out at the Heisman Trophy ceremony and have so much respect for their program, for them as people. What a great opportunity it is to play in a large setting, in a great setting for a CFP national championship.”
TCU hasn’t claimed a national championship in football since the 1938 season. Georgia hasn’t claimed one since last season.
Here are three reasons why the Bulldogs will become the first repeat national champions in football since Alabama did it last in 2012:
1. Been there, got T-shirt
While they got a relatively late start when it comes to making the playoff, the Bulldogs are making up for lost time under Smart.
The playoff era began in 2014, and Georgia didn’t receive its first berth until 2017, which was Smart’s second season as head coach. But because of their success in the semifinal round, the playoff wins are piling up fast. The Bulldogs enter Monday’s title game with a 4-1 playoff record.
That .800 winning percentage stands second among all playoff participants. Going 2-0 in its only appearance in 2019, LSU has the best winning percentage to date, at 1.000. Georgia could improve to .833 with a win Monday. The Bulldogs have reached the title game in all three of their playoff appearances.
Alabama, which Georgia defeated, 33-18, for the 2021 title, has played in most playoff games at 13. The Crimson Tide are 9-4 in those contests (.692). Clemson with 10 (6-4) and Ohio State with 7 (3-4) remain ahead of the Bulldogs (6) in number of playoff games played.
Smart’s experience is even deeper than that. He was Alabama’s defensive coordinator the first two years of the playoff. So, he first learned about playoff preparation from coach Nick Saban and then put his own touch on “the process” at Georgia.
“Coach Smart learned, and he took notes, and he got practice and everything down to a tee, then he made it his (own),” Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett said. “… He’s a big believer in discipline and schedule and all that stuff, and that’s good and fine. But he’s also, you know, brilliant. He learns and everything he does, at the end of the day, is about the University of Georgia winning. That goes for our facilities, to recruiting, raising money, practice, recovery, nutrition, mental health, you know, everything. I think that’s been one of the biggest reasons for our success.”
Good players help, too. The Bulldogs’ average national recruiting ranking from 2017-22 was 2.3, with two No. 1-ranked classes. TCU’s average was 30th, with a high of No. 23 in 2020.
2. A tough out
Simply stated, Georgia is a hard team to put away. As Ohio State certainly can attest, even when opponents get ahead of the Bulldogs late in games, they are tough to beat.
Twice, the Buckeyes were able to build two-score leads on Georgia in the semifinals. Twice, the Bulldogs were able to erase 14-point deficits, right before the end of the first half and, critically, in the fourth quarter. Bennett’s touchdown pass to Adonai “A.D.” Mitchell with 54 seconds remaining gave Georgia a 42-41 lead that stood up as the final score after the Buckeyes missed a 50-yard field goal with three seconds to go.
Such a finish was nothing new for the Bulldogs. Georgia had to come from behind to beat Missouri, 26-22, after trailing 19-12 with 14:09 to play Oct. 1. And, of course, it trailed Alabama 18-13 with 10:14 remaining in last season’s national championship game.
In fact, Georgia has scored 11 victories under Smart in games in which they were tied or trailing at the start the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs’ most recent loss in such a scenario was to South Carolina in overtime in Athens in 2019.
“Our guys are extremely resilient,” Smart said. “We talked at halftime about games we’ve been behind in, including the Missouri game. I had no doubt our team would come out fighting.”
In TCU, however, the Bulldogs will face an opponent equally resilient, if not more. The Horned Frogs recorded fourth-quarter comebacks for wins against Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Kansas this season and came up just short of another one before losing to Kansas State in overtime in the Big 12 title game. The Frogs had to hang on to win in the fourth quarter against Michigan after leading by as many as 19 points in the third quarter.
“They have the most comebacks in college football in the fourth quarter,” Smart said of TCU. “That shows what (their) mental makeup is. Their conference has been in a lot of tight ballgames, and they’ve won those tight ballgames.”
3. Tidying up
One of the hallmarks of Smart’s teams has been shoring up areas of weakness between games, particularly when granted extended time for preparation. That was best demonstrated last season when Alabama’s offense ran roughshod over the Bulldogs in the 2021 SEC Championship game.
Georgia’s secondary was no match for quarterback Bryce Young and his receivers in a 41-24 loss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. One month later, the Crimson Tide had a much harder time throwing the ball against the Bulldogs. That was helped, of course, when Jameson Williams left the game with a knee injury. But even before the star wideout went down late in the second quarter, Georgia’s defense was generating pressure and forcing turnovers, something they were unable to do in the first meeting.
The Bulldogs will need to show similar improvement before facing the Horned Frogs. Georgia’s secondary was exposed as a weak link in both the SEC Championship game against LSU and Saturday against Ohio State. A defense that entered the postseason leading the nation in points allowed has given up 71 — and average of 35.5 a game — in the two games since.
In both games the Bulldogs gave up more than 100 yards receiving to two different wideouts. Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison had 106 and two touchdowns in the first two quarters before getting knocked out the game in the third, and Emeka Egbuka added 112 and a score as Georgia literally had to outscore the Buckeyes to advance.
“We didn’t play our best game,” said sophomore Javon Bullard, who was named defensive MVP for the Bulldogs. “But there’s a whole lot we can fix on the defensive side of the ball, communication, knowing your leverage, talking, just things like that. I know we’ve got to talk better throughout the secondary. We’re just going to work on some other things and try to detail our work to the best of our ability.”
TCU’s offense ranks 13th nationally in yards per game (474.1) and 14th in yards per pass (8.4). Led by Duggan, running back Kendre Miller and receiver Quentin Johnston, the Frogs are very balanced, passing the ball 45.7% of the time.
Georgia’s offense wasn’t above reproach in the semis. In fact, the Bulldogs were shut out and managed only two first downs in the third quarter before rallying to score 18 points in the fourth quarter.
“You know, there were stretches where we didn’t play well, but then there were also stretches where we played really, really well,” said Bennett, who was named offensive MVP after passing for 398 yards and three TDs. “No matter. That all happened within the game. And it’s not like we get less credit because it happened in a certain situation. But we’ve just got to clean up those areas where we didn’t play as cleanly for a little bit and not have to play basically perfect like we did in the fourth quarter.”
