Dread it. Run from it. Alabama versus Georgia arrives just the same. The Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide are set to meet once more in the SEC Championship Game after Alabama locked down its spot with a 27-20 win against Auburn Saturday evening.
Georgia benefitted from Texas A&M’s loss to Texas on Black Friday, which dropped the Aggies out of SEC Championship Game contention thanks to the conference’s tiebreakers. This is familiar territory for Alabama and Georgia, as it will be the third time since 2020 — and the second in the past three seasons — that they have met in Atlanta with the SEC title on the line.
While Georgia coach Kirby Smart has dominated just about every team he plays, Alabama remains his personal boogeyman. The Crimson Tide won each of those last two SEC Championship Game matchups and they have a 7-1 record against Smart, a former Nick Saban assistant.
Even Saban’s retirement didn’t help Smart get the monkey off his back — Alabama improved to 2-0 against Smart under coach Kalen DeBoer with its win this season. Not that results of previous college football games are always transferable.
If Georgia drops this game to Alabama, the Bulldogs are still a shoe-in to make the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide are another story. A loss would drop them to 10-3, which would put them on a crowded bubble alongside the likes of BYU, Miami, Vanderbilt and Texas.
The selection committee has not punished a conference championship game loser in the 12-team era, but Alabama probably wants to ensure that it controls its own destiny. So this conference title game still matters a lot.
What to know about Alabama
It didn’t take too long for DeBoer to get his team to compete for titles. The Crimson Tide broke the 10-win barrier for the first time under their second-year boss — though just barely — with their rivalry week win against Auburn. They turned things around in a big way after what looked like a disastrous season-opening loss to Florida State. Their only speed bump after that came against a (likely) fellow playoff team in Oklahoma.
In the weeks after the Florida State loss, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson looked like a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender. He tossed 21 touchdowns to just one interception in his first nine starts while helping the Crimson Tide to an 8-1 record. He has struggled a bit as of late. Three of his four interceptions came against Oklahoma and Eastern Illinois and he had just 122 yards passing against Auburn.
Regardless, he has a deep cache of weapons to spread the ball to, highlighted by stars Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard. That’s just the surface of a loaded Alabama wide receiver corps, which also features top options like Isaiah Horton. It’s worth monitoring the status of top tight end Josh Cuevas. He’s missed the last two games with an injury.
While DeBoer-coached teams are known for their offensive attacks, Alabama’s defense has been the real story this season. The Crimson Tide haven’t allowed another team to score more than 24 points in a single game and they held seven of their 12 opponents under the 20-point threshold.
While transfers have Nikhai Hill-Green have played their role in that success, Alabama has relied largely on in-house development. Each of its top three tacklers — linebackers Justin Jefferson and Deontae Lawson and defensive back Bray Hubbard — signed with the Crimson Tide out of the junior college or high school ranks. Freshmen like cornerback Dijon Lee Jr. have stepped up in a big way, as well.
What to know about Georgia
This feels like the Georgia teams of yore: a defense that dominates from bell to bell and an offense that slowly coils around and suffocates its opponent like a boa constrictor. The Bulldogs have faced some adversity, such as their 24-21 loss to Alabama, but, prior to its narrow victory over Georgia Tech in its regular season finale, Georgia beat three straight opponents by at least 20 points — including No. 16 Texas.
The Bulldogs aren’t without their flaws. Notably, they’d probably like quarterback Gunner Stockton to elevate his level of play entering the postseason. Stockton has had his moments, but he has also looked shaky down the stretch. He completed just 11 of his 21 passes for 70 yards against the Yellow Jackets and he has one touchdown to two interceptions over Georgia’s last two games.
Georgia can lean on a run game that’s finally hitting its stride. The Bulldogs have rushed for at least 190 yards in three out of their last four games, including a 303-yard performance in their blowout win against Mississippi State. Sophomore Nate Frazier is leading the way. He was Georgia’s top offensive weapon with 108 yards on just 16 carries against Georgia Tech. He’s gone over 100 yards twice in the last month after not exceeding that mark through the first eight games of the season.
Of course, Georgia can also lean on its defense, which has put rough games against the likes of Tennessee and Ole Miss in the rearview mirror. The Bulldogs have allowed just one opponent to surpass 20 points since the start of November. UGA boasts one of the nation’s best groups of linebackers with studs like Chris Cole and CJ Allen patrolling the middle of the field and redshirt freshman Ellis Robinson IV has emerged as a much-needed lockdown cornerback.
Alabama vs. Georgia prediction
It’s quite hard to handicap this game. Both teams have strong defenses that are perfectly capable of taking over. Both have solid weapons at wide receiver. Both have quarterbacks that, though inconsistent at times, have shown flashes of brilliant talent. Georgia has a distinct advantage when it comes to rushing the ball, but that hasn’t helped them in the past against Alabama.
The Bulldogs have also played somewhat better than the Crimson Tide in recent weeks. They haven’t lost since Sept. 27 — against Alabama — but they have had close scrapes against Florida and Georgia Tech. While previous results aren’t transferable when predicting head-to-heads, psychology matters in college football, and Alabama seems to have a mental edge when it suits up against Georgia. That’s all that separates these two at this point. Prediction: Alabama wins SEC championship
Add Comment