This year’s Rose Bowl Game, a college football national semifinal, could potentially be the best college football game we’ve seen all year.
I can still hear Keith Jackson clear as a bell in my head. “Welcome to the Rose Bowl Game, the granddaddy of them all!” And indeed, this game is college football bowl royalty. Even when a national championship isn’t at stake, the chance to play on the sacred ground of the Rose Bowl is something every college football player should savor.
No. 3 Georgia and No. 2 Oklahoma will meet in the cathedral known as the Rose Bowl, playing in a College Football Playoff national semifinal game on January 1, 2018.
For the Bulldogs, this is their first trip to Pasadena and the famed Rose Bowl since New Year’s Day 1943, meaning not a single player on this team was even alive the last time Georgia played in a Rose Bowl Game.
In the finale to that 1942 season, Georgia came into the Rose Bowl with a 10-1 record, having only lost a regular season tilt to the Auburn Tigers, and went on to win the national championship by defeating UCLA 9-0 in the Rose Bowl Game.
This year, the Bulldogs pull into Pasadena with an 11-1 record (having only lost to Auburn in the regular season) with a shot at their first national championship since 1980. Standing in their way, a hotshot quarterback and the Oklahoma Sooners.
The Sooners have had the honor of playing in a Rose Bowl Game much more recently, defeating Washington State in the 2003 edition, but with much less at stake. That year, a possible shot at a national championship was thwarted by rival Oklahoma State. The Rose Bowl game was a consolation for the Sooners in a season which had national title hoped pinned to it from day one.
The breakdown of this game has been called (rightly so) strength against strength. Oklahoma’s high-flying quick strike offense against Georgia’s gritty, hard-hitting defense. The number four scoring offense in the nation smashing helmets with the number three scoring defense in the country.
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Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield has something to prove as he closes out his career as a Sooner. Having led Oklahoma to three consecutive Big 12 titles and having picked up a boatload of hardware for his personal trophy case – including this year’s Heisman Trophy – the former walk-on has one last goal in mind. A national championship.
On the flip side, Georgia has a group of seniors – Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Davin Bellamy, Lorenzo Carter and others – who gave up the chance to enter the NFL draft last year for one more shot at a ring. Having earned their 2017 SEC Championship rings on December 2, they now move on to the business of finishing what they started in their journey as Bulldogs.
How evenly matched are these two teams? It’s almost uncanny.
Besides being ranked nearly identical in opposing offensive and defensive stats, there are other areas where the two teams have put together extremely similar numbers.
Turnover margin: Both teams ranked 33rd in the nation at +0.38
Kickoff return yards allowed: Georgia averaged 20 yards per return, Oklahoma averaged 22.
Penalties: Georgia averaged 56.2 yards per game, Oklahoma averaged 61.8
Fumbles Forced: Georgia 10, Oklahoma 10.
The array of numbers comparing these teams goes on and on with many stats sitting equal or close to equal. But there’s one stat which many will point to as a key to this game – big plays – and once again, the immovable object and irresistible force will meet.
The Sooners are number one in the nation offensively, netting 108 plays of 20 or more yards this season. Georgia will counter that with a defense who has only allowed 41 plays of 20 or more yards this year, fourth best in the nation.
In short, when you stack these two teams up, the tale of the tape will give you absolutely nothing by which to pick a winner.
Special teams, turnovers and the aforementioned big plays (or stopping them) will be the difference-maker in a game between two of the most evenly matched teams you’ll see all year.
However, there is one area where the two teams are vastly different, and that would be the young men standing under center.
Baker Mayfield is the gristled veteran in terms of college football and big games. His antics both off and on the field have made headlines for years. He wears his emotions like a multi-colored coat, and has become a lightning rod for both fan admiration and disdain.
Baker Mayfield:
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 10, 2017
Great quarterback ✅
Great flag planter ✖️ pic.twitter.com/IDjY61mwFc
Conversely, Jake Fromm is the quiet, business-like true freshman who hasn’t shown any sign of being rattled by the big stage or the spotlight. Not many 18-year-olds could handle their first start coming in a night game at Notre Dame stadium the way Fromm did.
Will the win be business as usual for Fromm, or yet another over-the-top celebration for Mayfield?
The Bulldog and Sooner nations have a few more brief days to talk the smack, remain filled with hope, and to mentally revel in what could come from a Rose Bowl Game victory.
When you hold this game up against every game seen this season, and the few games left to close the year out, the 2018 Rose Bowl Game very well may be the best game we see all season.
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I’ll defer to the immortal Mr. Jackson once more.
“The hyperbole is done, now we can finally play the game.”