Does Alabama Play Again This Year
College Football Gets Its Inevitable Georgia-Alabama Championship Rematch
And Georgia is hoping that this fourth dimension effectually, it can testify Alabama much more as they play for a national title.
Georgia, the defensive mammoth, and Alabama, the perennial juggernaut, seemed to be on a standoff form to the top of college football all season.
They got a shot at each other in the Southeastern Briefing championship in December — a game in which the Bulldogs barely resembled the behemoth they'd been from their first game. On Friday, each squad romped past its College Football Playoff semifinal opponent, earning the chance to meet once more in the game for the national crown in Indianapolis on January 10 — if the game is not disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Alabama (13-1), which has won six national titles under Nick Saban (he took over the team in 2007), advanced to its 6th national championship game since 2015. Georgia (13-1), a programme that has come close but has not won a national title since 1980, avant-garde to its second national title game in five years (the Bulldogs lost to Alabama in overtime in 2018).
Alabama, after pummeling Ohio State in Jan 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 concluding flavour'due south output appeared unlikely, equally the Carmine Tide — which lost a handful of players to the 2021 North.F.50. typhoon, including their 2020 Heisman Trophy winner, DeVonta Smith — barely edged out Florida in their SEC opener and lost to Texas A&One thousand less than a month after.
Georgia, which entered 2021 with the land'southward top-rated recruiting class, according to 247Sports, took over the No. ane spot as it rolled through its schedule and went unbeaten in briefing play.
And Alabama, despite its inconsistencies, remained a pinnacle-five team heading into its regular-season finale confronting Auburn. Saban, stern equally ever, admonished his fan base'due south criticisms of his team's imperfections ahead of the Atomic number 26 Bowl in late November.
"When I came here, everybody was happy to win a game," Saban said on his radio show. "Now we're non happy to win a game anymore."
A week after their Fe Bowl win, though offensively stagnant in the game, the Crimson Tide smashed the nation'southward best defense, amassing over 500 yards of total offense confronting a Georgia team that was only allowing most 250 yards per game. Before surrendering 41 points to Alabama, the Bulldogs had given upwardly more than 13 points in a game only one time this flavor.
The loss dropped Georgia Coach Kirby Smart, once an assistant autobus on Saban'south Alabama staff, to 0-4 against his erstwhile boss.
Afterward, Smart told reporters that the embarrassing loss after an undefeated flavour did little damage to the Bulldogs' psyche.
"What information technology did was reinvigorated our free energy," Smart said. "It re-centers you."
That was credible in Georgia's 34-11 thrashing of No. two Michigan in the Orange Bowl, a concrete game in which the Bulldogs' defensive unit of measurement was near perfect.
"We knew nosotros were better than what nosotros showed final game," quarterback Stetson Bennett said during the Orangish Bowl's postgame trophy ceremony.
The Bulldogs will have a chance to avenge a poor functioning at the line of scrimmage where, uncharacteristically, they were bullied in the SEC championship game. While Georgia had no problem getting pressure level on opposing quarterbacks all flavour, the squad failed to tape a sack against Alabama a few weeks ago.
But the Bulldogs' able-bodied defense, every bit motivated as it will be at Lucas Oil Stadium, will face Alabama's offensive line at its best.
When the Crimson Tide struggled offensively during the regular season, it was oft because of inconsistencies in the performance of its offensive line. Against Auburn, multiple breakdowns in pass protection allowed rushers to accept easy avenues to bring downwardly quarterback Bryce Immature (he was sacked seven times).
In the conference title game, though, Young had the fourth dimension and protection he needed to find receivers downfield and to make plays with his feet. And against the Bearcats in the Cotton Bowl, the Cerise Tide's offensive line fabricated manner for running back Brian Robinson Jr. to rush for a career high as Alabama ran past Cincinnati to advance to the title game.
The championship matchup — if information technology is not derailed — volition exist the 72nd meeting between the teams. Alabama has won the last seven, and it will be the SEC's seventh straight season sending at least ane squad to the national title game.
Higher football game, though certainly disrupted in numerous means past the pandemic, made it through nearly of this flavour with few interruptions before basin games started. But as the highly contagious Omicron variant led to a nationwide surge in cases, leagues shuffled their schedules, several bowl games were canceled and the College Football Playoff changed its health protocols in hopes of preserving the virtually important games.
Late Friday night, with seconds remaining before their win over Michigan was finalized, the Bulldogs looked ready to dump a libation of cold liquid on the winning coach'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 i of their best seasons in years, a familiar foe awaits. The job isn't finished yet.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/01/sports/ncaafootball/alabama-georgia-college-football-national-championship.html
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