How 'Bout Them Back-to-Back National Championship Dawgs!

My daughter Avery and me at the start of this incredible Georgia Bulldogs season.  Go Dawgs!

We're having some tree work done on our property here at Twin Oaks.  Our long-time arborist discussed Georgia's upcoming National Championship Game against TCU several times over the past couple of days.  “TCU looks pretty tough,”  he said.  “They've got great receivers.”  “That quarterback looks pretty good.”  “Georgia could have their hands full.”  He told me all these things at one time or another.

He was right.  Georgia could have their hands full.  TCU was the Cinderella story of college football in 2022.  Unranked at the beginning of the season, with a first-year coach and only four players who had any bowl experience at all, the Horned Frogs rose game after game to become the third ranked team in the country.  Beating a good Michigan team 51 – 45 in the Fiesta Bowl confirmed they deserved to be where they were.

But.  I told my arborist that Georgia had already beaten a better team.  I thought the real National Championship game had already been played.  Georgia escaped with a 42 – 41 win over Ohio State in the Peach Bowl to get to the championship game.  I also told him that TCU was definitely a very good team.  You don't get to the championship game being just plain “good.”  All the “good” teams were going to be sitting at home watching the game.  "If Georgia doesn't play well," I added, "if they turn the ball over, well, any team can best any team in one college football game."

But that's not what happened.  Georgia dominated every aspect of the game and destroyed TCU by the most lopsided score in the long history of college football championships.  The 65 – 7 butt whuppin' was only briefly a close game in early the first quarter when TCU managed to make it a 10 – 7 game, largely due to blown coverage by the Georgia defensive secondary.  

After that, it was near flawless play by the Dawgs.  Georgia finished with 589 total yards against 188 for TCU.  Georgia had no fumbles lost and no interceptions against one and two, respectively, for TCU.  Stetson Bennett IV, the once walk-on quarterback without a scholarship, had his own Cinderella story to tell, accounting for an almost unprecedented SIX touchdowns (2 running, 4 TD passes) before taking a curtain-call and leaving the game with still 13 minutes to play.

Back-up quarterback and probable next season starter Carson Beck marched the Dawgs down the field for two more touchdowns after that.  Georgia's defense proved why they were No. 1 in the country with very aggressive play, swarming to the football, sacking the hapless TCU quarterback five times and kept him under constant pressure.

Georgia finishes the season as the only undefeated team in college football with a 15 – 0 record.  They become the first team in the "modern" College Football Playoff scheme to win back-to-back national titles and the first team to win back-to-back championships since Alabama did it a decade ago.  The Dawgs are only the eighth team do it in the history of the sport.  They accomplished this despite losing 15 starters to the NFL draft last year and another 13 players to the new college transfer portal.

How 'Bout Them National Championship Dawgs!  The dynasty has begun.  We might not make it three in a row next season (it's never been done by anybody), but Coach Kirby Smart has taken this program to the elite level.  Every other college team in the country (including the Alabama Crimson Tide) has to be compared with us now and likely will be for years to come.  What a phenomenal time to be alive and be a Georgia alumnus and a life-long fan!  Life at the mountaintop has never felt like this!  Go Dawgs!