Yeah, Georgia football fans, the Dawgs are still the 2021 national title winners, or is it 2022? Anyway, they won the whole shebang and took down Alabama in the process. While it still is extremely surreal, it’s real life, how sweet it is to be a Georgia Bulldog.
Forty-one long years and now the Dawgs are champions again. Former head coach Vince Dooley was there, and that made us emotional. Former head coach Mark Richt and his two sons were in Lucas Oil Stadium to watch the Dawgs do it, and so many former players were there to see this 2021 team do what so many thought would never happen again.
No one can say head coach Kirby Smart cannot develop, cannot win a national title, or any of the other senseless narratives we’ve heard since he got to Athens. None of that matters anymore because he has a ring and did it in six seasons as a first-time head coach.
Georgia football proved they could conquer the beast, and here are six exciting takeaways from the national title game.
Smart knows the heartache personally because he was a part of the Georgia football program at one of its lowest moments. Richt helped get the Dawgs back on track and elevated them, but Smart was the one who took the Dawgs over the hump.
The game was more of an old-school defensive battle than an explosive offensive one, as the recent championships have been. Smart wanted to put together a team where he reminded college football folks that defenses win championships, and this unit was a massive reason they won on Monday night.
It wasn’t just the front seven, but the secondary who stepped up and did their job by closing the season out how they started — with a pick-six.
Then starting quarterback, Stetson Bennett struggled throughout the first half of the game, flipped the switch after an alleged fumble, put the team on his back to march down the field and scored twice.
Georgia never gave up, even when the momentum tried to shift in Alabama’s favor. Instead, they stood tough and hunkered down one more time.
After rewatching the game and letting it sink in for most of this Tuesday morning and afternoon, here are our six takeaways from Monday’s night national championship.