‘Bama Comes Back

Tuesday night featured another exciting college football championship between Alabama and Georgia. Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide managed to crawl back from a 13-0 halftime deficit, to ultimately defeat the Georgia Bulldogs by a score of 26-23 in an overtime thriller. This game pitted former coaches, colleagues, and even brothers against each other in the Mercedes Benz Stadium at Atlanta.

The head coach of Georgia, Kirby Smart, had a lot of history with both the teams featured in this championship game. Smart was a former defensive coach for the Alabama football team for nine years and was also a standout defensive back for Georgia from 1995-1998. As such, this game meant meant a lot for coach Smart as he was likely hoping to be able to best his former team and bring a championship for the college he played for — what would have been the first since 1980. Likewise, there was a lot of ambition and expectation for Coach Saban who has lead the seemingly unstoppable dynasty of Alabama for the past ten years to 5 national championship victories. After coming off a devastating loss to Clemson last year Alabama was looking to reclaim the title as the nation’s top team.

Box Score

Game Summary:

The first half was completely dominated by Georgia. The Georgia defense allowed no points or big plays against the normally dangerous Alabama offense lead by the calm and collected star Sophomore quarterback Jalen Hurts. On the other hand, Georgia was expected to come out and try to run the ball with their all-star running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michael, however it was their true freshman quarterback Jake Fromm that took the spotlight. Fromm accounted for the majority of the Bulldogs offense which undoubtedly took the Alabama defense and coaching staff by surprise as they quickly jumped to a 13-0 lead. Going into halftime, Hurts and the Alabama offense looked very poor, but with Alabama receiving the second half kick-off probably the biggest surprise of the night happened. The starting quarterback Jalen Hurts who totaled an unbelievable 25-2 record as a starting Alabama quarterback was pulled from the game and replaced with the true freshman out of Hawaii, Tua Tagovailoa. Despite being ranked as the #1 dual threat quarterback in his recruiting class and deemed as ¨the next Marcus Mariota¨, being thrown into a national championship down by two scores was a lot to ask of the 19 year old Tagovailoa. Especially considering Tagovailoa has had  limited snaps, playing all year behind the starter Jalen Hurts. While, Tua Tagovailoa had lots of potential it was still a huge gamble from Nick Saban to put him in the game. Ultimately, it was a gamble that paid off. The second drive, Tua and the Alabama offense drove down the field and scored cutting the Bulldogs lead to 6. The freshman would continue to complete 14 of his 24 passes, totaling 166 yards and 3 touchdown, including the game-winner in OT. Alabama´s impressive comeback was aided by a lack of production from Georgia’s offense led by their own own true freshman quarterback Jake Fromm, producing only 7 points in the second half. Alabama could have easily won the game in regulation, with a field goal of 36 yards but the Alabama kicker shanked the ball and the game went into overtime. Georgia received the ball first in overtime and kicker Rodrigo Blankenship nailed a 51 yard field goal to keep their hopes alive. However, with the second play of Alabama´s possession Tagovailoa connected with Devonte Smith for the game-winning touchdown.

It was a nice sentiment when brothers Calvin and Riley Ridley met with each other after the game and swapped jerseys. It is a rare occurrence in collegiate level sports when two siblings face off against each other, even more so in a national championship game. Calvin is a junior wide receiver for Alabama, and a staple of the Alabama offense. While Riley Ridley is a sophomore wide receiver for Georgia, who had only 136 total yards all season, until he exploded this game with 6 catches for 82 yards. Calvin has opted to forego his senior season with Alabama and enter the NFL draft.

Link to Calvin and Riley after game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uloFwm5-94A