Alabama Football takes on Georgia in a national championship rematch in Atlanta for the SEC crown, in what is effectively a playoff quarterfinal.
The much anticipated rematch between Alabama and Georgia is finally here. All season long it has felt inevitable that the two heavyweights would be squaring off in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, and the matchup has been set since both clinched their respective divisions on the first weekend of November.
Georgia won the SEC last season, but Alabama still made the playoff in spite of an Iron Bowl loss that knocked them out of the SEC race. The Bulldogs won a thrilling Rose Bowl over Oklahoma, while the Crimson Tide rolled past Clemson to set up an All-SEC affair for all the marbles.
The first half came up ‘Dawgs, with Georgia racing out to a 13-0 first half lead while completely suffocating the anemic Alabama offense. After halftime, Nick Saban made the now legendary call to replace entrenched starter Jalen Hurts with true freshman Tua Tagovailoa, and the legend of Tua was born.
Tua famously came off the bench and ignited the dormant Tide offense, leading Alabama to a 20-7 second half that forced overtime. Georgia got a field goal, and then Tua took a costly sack that knocked Alabama back to the 41-yard-line.
The rest is history, with a play now known only as “2nd-and-26” – Tua hit fellow true freshman Devonta Smith for a 41-yard touchdown to win the national title and cement that play in the ethos of college football history.
Tua is now the Heisman Trophy favorite, leading a blitzkrieg Alabama offense that has overwhelmed opponents all season. In a dominant Iron Bowl victory, the Crimson Tide became the first team since Yale in 1888 to outscore all 12 of its opponents by at least 20 points.
Georgia hopes to not only challenge Nick Saban’s machine, but overtake it. The Bulldogs are the biggest threat to Alabama’s autonomy in the SEC, with former defensive coordinator Kirby Smart building his team in Athens in the Tide’s image.
Smart is recruiting at an Alabama-like pace between the hedges, and the scary thing for teams across the nation is that the Bulldogs are still remarkably young, and the Death Star isn’t even fully operational yet.
Can Georgia overtake Alabama, and clinch a spot in the playoff? Or will the Bulldogs just become another fragment in the Tide’s path of destruction?
Here are three bold predictions for the SEC Championship Game: