INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Talent won.
After 10 days of TCU playing the plucky underdog and the first college football Cinderella of the playoff era, the glass slipper got smashed into a million pieces by halftime. The national cha🦩mpionship game looked like varsity against JV, starters against backups, and yes, SEC again♏st everybody else.
Georgia put an e♒xclamation mark on an all-time great season with a 65-7 beatdown of Texas Christian on Monday night, the largest margin of victory in the national title game, and in any bowl game ever. That secured Georgia a 15-0 record, its third national championship and second straight title. It turned out, the Bulldogs might as well have been haܫnded the trophy in Atlanta after winning the Peach Bowl. That’s how easy this was.
“It seems like for the pasಞt three or four months, we’ve been 🐓looking to see if somebody could beat us,” quarterback Stetson Bennett said. “And we just ran out of games.
“Nobody could.”
After one sack on Max Duggan deep in TCU’s own territory, Geo꧑rgia’s Bear Alexander looked up at the sea of fans wearing purple behind the end zone and waved goodbye. There were st✱ill 42 seconds left in the first half.
It turned out, that was enough time for the Bulldogs to intercep༒t Duggan for the second time and add a 22-yard Adonai Mitchell touchdown catch to their jaw-dropping tally of first-half points. That made it 38-7, setting up the second half as a 30-minute procession to red and black confetti and a trophy presentation.
Thanks for coming, Horned Frogs. Maybe next tꦓime.
“They’re a great team,” Duggan said. “Everybody knows how good they’ve been this year and prior years and we knew that.”&n😼bsp;
The Horned Frogs may have kn🍌⛎own it. But now they’ve felt it in a historic way.
“This team ꦐis s💎pecial,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said, “because they didn’t have a flaw.”
This team has replaced Alabama as the standard in this sport, with Smart equaling his former boss Nick Saban’s feat of back-to-back titles, which the Crimson Tide won in 2011-’12. A year after toppling Ala🐓bama in the playoff, Georgia romped to another championship, playing two close games all season and holding onto the top spot in the CFP rankings in every iteration but the first.
After becoming one of the sport’s most unlikely stories by leading Georgia to the national title last year, Bennett put the finishing touches on a legendary tale. The Blackshear, Ga., nativ🍸e threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns, running for two more in his final game with the Bulldogs. He is only the sixth quarterback in history to win back-to-back national titles as a starter. By far and away, he’s also the most unlikely — a former walk-o🤡n who once transferred to Jones Community College and had to prove himself time and again to Smart and offensive coordinator Todd Monken to earn the starting job.
On Monday, he couldn’t miss. Neither could Smart, nor Monken, nor anyone else covered in cri♊msonꦑ. Georgia overpowered TCU at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Its pass-catchers, particularly tight end Brock Bowers and receiver Ladd McConkey, proved too much to handle. Its secondary, questioned after a rocky performance in the semifinal against Ohio State, blanketed Quentin Johnston and the rest of TCU’s receivers just about all night. Even Duggan couldn’t batter his way out of this one.
“I’m going to enjoy watching this tape🍌,” Bennett said.
If TCU did have a moment to stay in the game, it came during the briefest possible first-quarter window. Already down 10-0, Derius Davis took advantage of a rare𒅌 Georgia coverage breakdown to go 60 🌼yards, setting up a 2-yard Duggan score.
For just a second, it looked like the ’Dawgs might be vulnerable. And then Bennett marched them straight down the field, with McConkey catching balls of ✅11, 11 and 37 yards on a coverage-bust touchdown to key a four-play, 70-yard drive.
By the time halftime struck, Bennett had marched Georgi𒊎a on three more touchdown drives of 92, 66🦹 and 22 yards, all for touchdowns and all without TCU answers. ;
The Horned🐬 Frogs made their hay this season on coming back when all seemed lost, but that ℱwas in the Big 12. Here, against SEC speed and strength, there was no way, no how.
“I think we’re setting that standard,” McConkey said. “No one’s [won back-to-back titles] in the CFP era.🌳 For us to go and be the first team, it’s a great feeling.”
Bennett was pulled✨ with 13:25 to go in the fourth quarter, with Smart calling a timeout to set up a curtain call with Georgia leading by 45 points. A sea of red greeted hꦐim with a standing ovation.
“That was special, coming off and seeing coach Smart,” Bennett said. “That was 🌳really cool.”
Talent won, but it turned out that Bennett wrote the underdog story that TCU ꧃couldn’t.
