When Will Georgia Bulldogs Play Again
College Football Gets Its Inevitable Georgia-Alabama Title Rematch
And Georgia is hoping that this time around, it tin can evidence Alabama much more as they play for a national championship.
Georgia, the defensive mammoth, and Alabama, the perennial juggernaut, seemed to exist on a collision course to the top of higher football all season.
They got a shot at each other in the Southeastern Conference championship in December — a game in which the Bulldogs barely resembled the behemoth they'd been from their commencement game. On Friday, each team romped past its Higher Football Playoff semifinal opponent, earning the chance to meet again in the game for the national crown in Indianapolis on Jan 10 — if the game is not disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Alabama (xiii-1), which has won six national titles under Nick Saban (he took over the team in 2007), avant-garde to its 6th national championship game since 2015. Georgia (13-ane), a program that has come shut simply has not won a national championship since 1980, advanced to its second national championship game in five years (the Bulldogs lost to Alabama in overtime in 2018).
Alabama, later pummeling Ohio State in January to cap one of the most ascendant seasons in college football history, entered the 2021 season with the rest of the nation in its wake.
Living up to last flavor'south output appeared unlikely, every bit the Ruby-red Tide — which lost a scattering of players to the 2021 N.F.50. draft, including their 2020 Heisman Trophy winner, DeVonta Smith — barely edged out Florida in their SEC opener and lost to Texas A&M less than a month later.
Georgia, which entered 2021 with the country'due south peak-rated recruiting class, according to 247Sports, took over the No. 1 spot as information technology rolled through its schedule and went unbeaten in conference play.
And Alabama, despite its inconsistencies, remained a top-5 team heading into its regular-flavor finale confronting Auburn. Saban, stern as ever, admonished his fan base'due south criticisms of his team's imperfections ahead of the Iron Bowl in belatedly Nov.
"When I came hither, everybody was happy to win a game," Saban said on his radio show. "Now we're not happy to win a game anymore."
A week afterwards their Iron Bowl win, though offensively stagnant in the game, the Red Tide smashed the nation's best defense, amassing over 500 yards of total offense confronting a Georgia team that was only allowing almost 250 yards per game. Before surrendering 41 points to Alabama, the Bulldogs had given upward more than 13 points in a game but once this season.
The loss dropped Georgia Coach Kirby Smart, one time an assistant double-decker on Saban's Alabama staff, to 0-4 against his one-time boss.
Later, Smart told reporters that the embarrassing loss after an undefeated flavour did little damage to the Bulldogs' psyche.
"What it did was reinvigorated our energy," Smart said. "It re-centers you."
That was apparent in Georgia's 34-11 thrashing of No. 2 Michigan in the Orange Bowl, a physical game in which the Bulldogs' defensive unit was nearly perfect.
"We knew nosotros were better than what we showed concluding game," quarterback Stetson Bennett said during the Orange Basin's postgame trophy anniversary.
The Bulldogs will have a run a risk to avenge a poor operation at the line of scrimmage where, uncharacteristically, they were bullied in the SEC championship game. While Georgia had no trouble getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks all flavor, the team failed to record a sack against Alabama a few weeks ago.
Just the Bulldogs' able-bodied defense, every bit motivated as it will exist at Lucas Oil Stadium, volition face up Alabama's offensive line at its best.
When the Crimson Tide struggled offensively during the regular season, information technology was often considering of inconsistencies in the performance of its offensive line. Against Auburn, multiple breakdowns in pass protection immune rushers to have like shooting fish in a barrel avenues to bring down quarterback Bryce Immature (he was sacked seven times).
In the conference title game, though, Young had the time and protection he needed to find receivers downfield and to brand plays with his feet. And against the Bearcats in the Cotton Bowl, the Crimson Tide's offensive line made style for running back Brian Robinson Jr. to rush for a career high equally Alabama ran past Cincinnati to accelerate to the title game.
The championship matchup — if it is not batty — volition be the 72nd coming together between the teams. Alabama has won the last 7, and it will be the SEC's seventh directly season sending at least i team to the national championship game.
College football, though certainly disrupted in numerous means by the pandemic, made it through about of this season with few interruptions before bowl games started. But equally the highly contagious Omicron variant led to a nationwide surge in cases, leagues shuffled their schedules, several basin games were canceled and the Higher Football Playoff inverse its wellness protocols in hopes of preserving the most important games.
Late Friday night, with seconds remaining earlier their win over Michigan was finalized, the Bulldogs looked ready to dump a libation of cold liquid on the winning jitney's head.
Instead of taking part in the playful celebratory gesture, Smart could be seen speaking emphatically to his players, waving off their attempts at an early shower.
After one of their best seasons in years, a familiar foe awaits. The job isn't finished nevertheless.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/01/sports/ncaafootball/alabama-georgia-college-football-national-championship.html
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