The questions started as soon as Georgia was finished dusting off Michigan. The moment the national championship game between the two SEC rivals was set.
The Bulldogs have spent the past 10 days not just preparing for Alabama, but hearing constantly about it. Kirby Smart was asked whether the Crimson Tide have become Georgia’s bogeyman. His players have been peppered with questions about the last meeting just over a month ago, the 2018 national title game, everything and anything Crimson Tide.
It’s been all Alabama, all the time.
“It’s definitely motivation,” Georgia offensive tackle Jamaree Salyer. “It’s the truth. You can’t really run away from the truth.”
Top-seeded Alabama (13-1) has beaten No. 3 Georgia as the favorite and as the underdog. It has come from behind. It has held onto big leads. It has been the only mountain the Bulldogs have failed to climb since Smart took over. The Tide have seven consecutive wins over Georgia, two victories in the SEC title game over the past four seasons and of course that classic title game four years ago when the Bulldogs (13-1) blew a 13-point halftime lead.
Phidarian Mathis sacks Georgia QB Stetson Bennett in the SEC Championship Game. Getty Images“It’s definitely about pushing yourself to the next level,” said Jordan Davis, Georgia’s all-world defensive tackle and projected first-round NFL draft pick. “This is for all the glory. So, if you’re not pushing yourself to the absolute limit, then what are you here for?”
Despite the lopsided, 41-24 defeat in the SEC final, despite the presence on the opposite sideline of the greatest college football coach of all time in Nick Saban, despite Alabama’s roster being led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Bryce Young and sack-leader Will Anderson Jr., Georgia enters as a 2.5-point favorite. It is looking for its first crown since 1980, while Alabama has eyes on repeating as national champion and winning it all for the seventh time in 13 years under Saban.
Georgia was the better team during the regular season, just one of its games decided by a single possession. It’s defense is No. 1 in the country in points allowed (9.5), a unit featuring the Outland and Bednarik awards winner in Davis and Butkus award winner in linebacker Nakobi Dean. But when these teams last met, Young ripped apart that defense, throwing for 421 yards and three touchdowns and Jameson Williams torched the Bulldogs’ secondary for seven catches, 184 yards and two scores. Five of the 15 touchdowns Georgia has allowed this season came in that game.
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett IV threw two interceptions and has been picked off five times in his only two starts against Alabama. Bulldogs linebacker Nolan Smith admitted to crying after the most recent loss. Georgia’s invincibility was shattered by the team that always seems to have its number.
Kirby Smart reacts during the Orange Bowl. Jacob Kupferman/Cal Sport Media/“We don’t start with any more points because of anything that’s happened with the past. Anything in the past is exactly that, in the past,” Young insisted. “You don’t get any carry-over. So it’s going to be a new game, and we have to earn the outcome that we want.”
While accurate, this isn’t about one game. It’s been a slanted rivalry for years. Now that Georgia has become a national powerhouse under Smart, churning out quality NFL players and hanging atop the recruiting rankings with the Crimson Tide yet unable to dethrone them, it’s fair to wonder if there is something bigger at work here. If there is a mental edge. If Alabama is indeed Georgia’s personal bogeyman.
There’s only one way to change that perception. Beat the Tide on Monday night.
“[It] doesn’t have to be the same narrative over and over again. We control our destiny,” Salyer said. “Not anybody else. Not the media. Not Alabama. We control our destiny and that’s how we want it.”
