Ever since Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and DeVonta Smith broke their hearts on second-and-26 in 2018, the Georgia Bulldogs have yearned to return to the national championship stage.
Four years later, Georgia is back. Not surprisingly, Alabama will be waiting on the other sideline.
After clobbering Michigan 34-11 in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl, Georgia aims to win its first national championship since the 1980 season. The prolonged and painful drought has included several chapters and different opposing villains, but recently, Georgia’s biggest obstacle is the team it will face Jan. 10 in Indianapolis.
Alabama has won seven straight against Georgia, including that overtime triumph in the CFP title game, and three SEC championship game victories, the most recent coming Dec. 4. Georgia coach Kirby Smart has significantly elevated his alma mater since arriving from Alabama after the 2015 season. But his repeated failures against Saban stand out, which adds a degree of significance to a game that really needs none.
A win would absolve Smart of criticism that he can’t beat his mentor and win the biggest games. A loss, meanwhile, would set off a long and painful offseason in Athens. The Saban-lives-rent-free-in-Smart’s-head jokes would be relentless.
Remove Alabama’s past dominance of Georgia, and the title game projects as a very close matchup, even one that favors the Bulldogs. Georgia spent most of the season as the clear-cut No. 1 team, while Alabama rarely exhibited the flawless play or flash of the Tide team that cruised to a national title in 2020. Alabama dominated when it mattered, beating Georgia and Cincinnati in Friday’s CFP Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic by a combined score of 68-30.
Beating a team twice in such a short span is never easy. Head-to-head history favors Alabama, but it’s not hard at all to make a case for Georgia.
Will this be the year Georgia ends its interminable title drought? Or will Alabama…
Source : espn
