LOS ANGELES — It’s championship or choke job for Kirby Smart. Either Georgia’s coach wins back-to-back national titles, or Smart blows it by losing as the biggest favorite since they started deciding the champion with a final game. There’s no middle ground outcome for Smart in the College Football Playoff championship game against TCU on Monday night.
That assessment may seem too harsh. Winning back-to-back national championships is hard. Winning titles at Georgia is rare. The Bulldogs claim just three titles since 1895. Smart owns one of them and he’s built a program that’s set up to compete for many others.
Those are all good reasons why a Georgia loss on Monday should not be viewed as a complete failure. I’m here to tell you that none of them will matter if Georgia does lose on Monday. TCU is playing with house money. Georgia is the house. The odds are stacked in its favor and, as they say, the house always wins.
