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INDIANAPOLIS—When the Georgia Bulldogs filtered back into their locker room after their only loss of the 2021 season, there were tears, in that location was anger and in that location was resolve.

The Alabama 41, Georgia 24 scoreline in the Southeastern Conference title game Dec. 4 wasn't supposed to happen. Not again. Non this year, of all years, when the Dogs finally had a improve squad than their nemesis. Correct and so and there, they set nearly making sure it didn't happen a second fourth dimension this season.

"Want the honest to God truth? I cried," linebacker Nolan Smith said. "I'grand 20 now. I've been playing football since I was 4—16 years, haven't won annihilation, oasis't won a championship. I won a couple of bowl games, only anything big, whatsoever championship, I never won however."

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For a ringless agglomeration of Bulldogs, that hunger to win something immediately turned the sting of unexpected defeat into an even higher level of motivation. Their flavour didn't cease that twenty-four hours in Atlanta. In 1 respect, it was simply beginning.

"The outside dissonance begins now," passenger vehicle Kirby Smart said that Saturday in Atlanta. "We've heard it before."

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Oh boy, had they. And now it would exist deafening, 41 years of frustration echoing around this team. Alabama and coach Nick Saban had tortured Georgia and Smart, serving every bit their title impediment over and over. The 2017 national championship game. The 2018 SEC title game. A top-five showdown in Tuscaloosa last yr that helped decide who would win that national title. Now this.

Earlier Smart could even begin the postgame accost to his team, several of his veteran players performed a miniature intervention. Favored by a touchdown and beaten by 17, they knew two important things: They were amend than they played that day, and they would have to confront the Cherry Tide once again on the way to a championship.

Ultimately, Alabama had to be conquered. And now the Bulldogs knew what it would take to do it.

"We're called-for the boats," Smart said of the all-or-null quest his squad had undertaken. "The only way is through."

Kelee Ringo was running—to daylight, to deliverance, to the end zone. He chased down 41 years of ghosts and v years of Alabama torture. He broke free and took Georgia fans with him on a cathartic 79-yard sprint with an interception of Bryce Young.

The Bulldogs' showtime touchdown of this tour-de-force defensive season was a pick-six—the only touchdown of their season-opening win against Clemson. And at present their last touchdown of the season would be a pick-six—the capper and Bama backbreaker in a 33–18 triumph in the College Football Playoff national championship game Monday.

Ringo personifies the recruiting reach that has turned Georgia into a powerhouse nether Smart. He was a five-star prospect from Arizona who was pursued by everyone, taking visits to Ohio State, Oregon and Texas earlier deciding to go with the Dogs. He was a significant reason why Georgia's 2020 recruiting class was ranked No. 1 in the nation, along with the '18 and '19 classes.

Georgia's defence put more than pressure on Young and Alabama, producing iv sacks and ii interceptions.

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Smart was running, too. Along the sideline, chasing Ringo, knowing what that play could mean as the Bulldogs wrapped their paws effectually this game. But Smart was likewise yelling as he ran—urging Ringo to go down, to avoid being stripped, figuring his team could run out the clock. "That was the wrong phone call," Smart acknowledged later on, since Alabama still had three timeouts. Ringo did the right thing by taking that interception to the house and making it a ii-score game.

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Smart'south overpowering defense had been shockingly shredded in December's SEC championship game, producing goose egg sacks and zero turnovers while giving up its most points of the season by far. The tweak from that game to this: more than man-to-man coverage, less zone, more blitzers going after Young. And the Georgia defence got its revenge, producing four sacks and ii interceptions of Young, hitting him repeatedly and forcing 22 incompletions. The Dogs' D kept the Cherry-red Tide out of the cease zone for nearly 50 minutes, ascent up repeatedly in the scarlet zone and surrendering just one touchdown. Alabama's 18 points were its fewest in 40 games, since the 2018 CFP championship game loss to Clemson.

"It's the defense that kept us in this game while we were stumbling over our own feet," Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett said. "The defense won this game."

And defence force is Smart'southward calling card. As the first FBS coach to win a national title at his alma mater since Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee in 1998, Smart has acute knowledge of what this decades-long wait has been similar for the Georgia fan base. "They've become legendary," he said of his players.

"How great are the dangers I face to win a proficient proper noun in Athens."  —Alexander the Slap-up

Unlike Athens, of course. Unlike fourth dimension, by 2 millennia and change. Different leader, besides. But Kirby Smart certainly tin relate to Alexander the Corking.

Smart's quest to forever win a adept name in his home state had to go through the most difficult trial in higher football. He had to defeat Saban—the greatest coach in the history of the sport and Smart's mentor—for the starting time fourth dimension.

Many other coaches accept failed to beat out the Caprine animal, of course. Just Smart was hired off Saban's Alabama staff for that precise purpose—to awaken the sleeping behemothic that is Georgia and to elevate it to the exalted plane occupied by the Red Tide. The imbalance had gone on for too long.

At a place like Alabama, where the championships simply keep coming, information technology can exist hard to distinguish them. Who was the quarterback in 2015? Jake Coker? I'd almost forgotten him. At Georgia, the ane undisputed, undefeated title stands out in bittersweet bold blazon. The 1980 team will forever concur its ain place in program lore, when Vince Dooley finally won it all backside an almost mythical freshman running dorsum named Herschel Walker. "A complete squad," Dooley says. "In every stage of the game, nosotros were adept. Information technology was a special team."

The expectation was that this was the start of something large. Bear Bryant's powers were finally waning at Alabama, and Walker would pb the Bulldogs to multiple titles.

It never happened. The Dogs went 21–3 the next 2 seasons with Walker but were denied another title before the running dorsum became the extremely rare player of that era to turn pro early. The window of opportunity airtight, and stayed closed for a maddeningly long fourth dimension.

"Nosotros had a take chances to win three in a row," says the quarterback of that 1980 team, Buck Belue. "And now you get 41 years without ane? Amazing."

The drought defied logic and geography. Located merely seventy miles from Atlanta, one of the great talent hotbeds in America and in a state full of prospects, Georgia became a perplexing underachiever. They tried everything in terms of coaching—a Dooley assistant (Ray Goff), a successful caput coach at a lower level (Jim Donnan), and a hot assistant from a national title staff (Mark Richt). Finally, they hit it correct with Smart.

He quickly began recruiting at a Sabanesque level, and then built the program in a Sabanesque style—defense force first. Smart'south tape has mirrored Saban'due south at Alabama: i unsteady season while getting started, and so relentless winning. Saban started 7–6 in 2007 and so has won x or more games ever since; Smart was 8–5 his first year and has fielded top 10 teams the rest of the fashion.

But every season, there was a hiccup. One game where everything seemed to get wrong. One Saturday when sophistication escaped the Bulldogs, and bad things multiplied.

In 2017, it was a 23-point loss at Auburn. In '18, a twenty-point loss at LSU. In 'xix, a stunning home upset against Southward Carolina. In '20, a debacle in the Cocktail Party game confronting rival Florida.

Smart fabricated composure i of the themes for this squad. They would not let one bad play become six bad plays and turn into a wheels-off meltdown. He had the veteran core to practise this. When mammoth defensive tackle and potential first-round draft choice Jordan Davis opted to stay in schoolhouse, the anchor of a keen defence force was in identify. The foundation had been laid years before, on the recruiting trail.

Smart was 0–4 against his mentor, Saban, heading into the 2022 CFP national championship game.

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The 2018 freshman class featured eight players who are fundamental members of this defensive unit. More were added in the '19 class: 5-star linebacker Smith, four-star defensive end Travon Walker, four-star safety Lewis Cine. Then came the Dec signing-day drama with four-star linebacker Nakobe Dean of Horn Lake, Miss. Georgia coaches came into the function on Dec. xix, 2018, not knowing what Dean was going to practice (he says he woke up at 8 a.m. that day still undecided). When Dean spurned the rest of the SEC and pulled on a Georgia shirt on live Tv set, the celebration was on in the Bulldogs' football facility. "I started doing cartwheels downwardly the hallway," says defensive coordinator Dan Lanning.

The prowess of that unit of measurement was unveiled immediately this past September. On a sweaty night in Charlotte, giddy Georgia fans flowed out of Bank of America Stadium after a 10–iii suffocation of Clemson and partied into the wee hours downtown, then vainly tried to get Uber rides in an overwhelmed urban center. They knew this was the starting time of something large, as Smart sought to deprogram the offensive revolution of the sport.

"We have a goal for our defense: allow no explosive plays and agree teams under xv points," Smart said that night. "People say, 'You're crazy, you tin can't practice that in this mean solar day and age.' Well, why can't we?"

Georgia held its next eight opponents to less than 15 points, and then allowed a regular flavour-high 17 to Tennessee before getting back to shutting down all offenses. In that location were no shut games. The average margin of victory in going 12–0 was 33.8 points. And that Dogs D was on footstep to become the first in a decade to allow fewer than 10 points per game.

And then came the meltdown against Alabama in December. And here came all the old questions. One of the biggest and loudest being asked: Could the undersized erstwhile walk-on quarterback, who had done so much good work this season turning doubters into believers, really go this done?

When Ringo and Smart finished running, Stetson Bennett started crying. The emotion poured out correct in that location on the sideline, as the weight of what happened hitting him. "I tin can't clear information technology," he said. "I'thou non that smart."

Bennett is plenty smart and enough confident, perhaps more than than his physical gifts should logically allow. The national title game served equally the full Stetson Experience, from the struggles to the successes, to the title and full vindication.

Bennett's quaternary quarter was a wild swing of emotions. With Georgia clinging to a thirteen–12 pb, he did something that looked like it might cost his squad the national championship. Pursued to his right, Bennett attempted to throw away a pass while beingness hit, just wound up with an empty hand going forward as the ball squirted sideways. Alabama defensive back Brian Branch nonchalantly grabbed it but before stepping out of premises, seemingly thinking it was an incomplete pass. But it was ruled a fumble, and Alabama recovered in the red zone. Suddenly, this was a catastrophe.

5 plays afterward, the Tide scored to take an xviii–thirteen lead. Georgia fans lost their wits over the stunning turn of events, but Bennett retained his. "I was not going to be the reason we lose the game," the quarterback told himself.

He then backed it up, merely when Bulldog Nation was giving upwards on him for the umpteenth time. Bennett immediately led a 5-play drive to retake the atomic number 82, completing all 3 of his passes with the touchdown coming on a bomb to A.D. Mitchell, who made a leaping grab. After forcing a 3-and-out, Georgia got the ball back and Bennett led one more bulldoze. This 1 was powered by the running game ("We played Georgia football on that drive," Bennett said), but the TD came on a lob in the flat to tight stop Brock Bowers.

All that was left after that was the Ringo pick-six earlier Bennett had a celebratory cigar in his hands on the field later on. "To remember [he] would come this far," said Smart, "what a story."

Bennett'southward story is indeed the stuff of screenplays:

Bennett's locker consignment when he joined the team in 2017 was No. 122A. His walk-on roommate was 122B. In other words, they shared the aforementioned locker.

The scholarship players weren't sharing space like that. His assigned bailiwick of jersey number was 22, which could have been construed as a less-than-subtle invitation to change positions. Or quit.

"That sucked," Bennett says with a laugh. "I mean, talk about a humbling experience. I was the rare quarterback who was excited to be on the watch team so I could wear the other team'southward quarterback number. At least then I looked similar an actual quarterback and not an idiot."

Bennett showed potential leading the scout that fall, but then Georgia signed Justin Fields, the No. 1 QB in the country. His path to playing time blocked, Bennett transferred to a junior higher in Mississippi. After a flavour at that place, he was prepared to sign with Louisiana when Fields decided to transfer to Ohio State. Georgia called over again on signing solar day with a scholarship offer.

They requested an immediate decision. Bennett balked.

"'I'm not going to give you an answer now,'" he recalls telling Georgia. "Because it'south a pretty big conclusion. Y'all can hold that offer in your paw, or I'll just go to the schoolhouse I've already picked, considering I was fine this morning. I'm not going to come itch back on my knees."

But Bennett did come back to the schoolhouse where he always wanted to play, figuring he would support Jake Fromm for a flavor and then have a shot at the starting job. "I played all my cards on Fromm leaving, and it made me wait like a smart man," Bennett says. "Then this whole fiasco happened."

Bennett, the quondam walk-on turned starter, went 17 for 26 for 224 yards and no interceptions on Monday nighttime.

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The "fiasco" began with Jamie Newman and JT Daniels both transferring in for the 2020 season, from Wake Forest and USC, respectively. Just Newman opted out before the flavour began and Daniels was still rehabbing a knee injury, then Bennett figured he had his shot.

That didn't come to laissez passer immediately. Georgia went with the highly touted D'Wan Mathis to start final season. He was ineffective, and Smart turned to Bennett while Bulldogs fans impatiently waited for Daniels to be cleared and accept over.

That didn't happen until late in the flavour. Despite Bennett'southward solid play, Daniels led Georgia to a Peach Bowl victory confronting Cincinnati and started the 2021 flavor as the starter and projected Heisman Trophy candidate.

Just Daniels couldn't stay salubrious, and Bennett was dorsum in the starting lineup for skilful past the fourth game of the season. He is on pace to break Aaron Murray's unmarried-season laissez passer efficiency tape at Georgia, but many fans continued to declare Bennett could never win a shootout game against a quarterback the caliber of Alabama's Young. When he threw two interceptions in the loss to the Cherry-red Tide in December, the "outside noise" Smart referred to was deafening.

"If my mom said it, it would hurt my feelings," Bennett says. "Only these guys—the Twitter guys, or whatsoever they are—I don't pay ii cents to 'em. Only it is weird, though. They're fans of the team, and some of them are wishing I get hurt or something. I'g like, 'Good Lord, I'm glad I'm not in your family, because y'all sound similar a miserable person.'"

The miserable people are all on Stetson Bennett's side now. The former walk-on is on scholarship for life now, taking his place next to Buck Belue in Georgia's Forever Hero throne room. If he doesn't have a membership to Augusta National by the terminate of this calendar week, they're doing it incorrect.

When the game was won and ESPN's Rece Davis stuck a microphone in Smart's confront for his thoughts, the coach had a mike-drop moment. "There'south going to be some property torn up in Indianapolis tonight, baaaby!"

Information technology was the perfect callback to 1980. Famed Georgia radio journalist Larry Munson made the well-nigh famous play call of that championship flavour, when receiver Lindsay Scott's 93-thousand catch-and-run allowed the Bulldogs to escape an upset at the easily of rival Florida in Jacksonville.

"Practise you know what is gonna happen hither tonight?" Munson said on the air. "And upwards at St. Simons and Jekyll Island and all those places where all those Domestic dog people take got those condominiums for four days? Man, is at that place gonna be some property destroyed this night!"

No effects were condom in Indy late Monday dark.

Smart recalled how, on Sunday dark at the team hotel, he got off the lift and was greeted by the sight of the 89-twelvemonth-old Dooley sitting on a bench. He had locked himself out of his room and was waiting for hotel staff to bring him up a key. "God put him there for me to come across him the night earlier the game," Smart said.

The 41-year quest betwixt titles came total circle. All it took for the Bulldogs to beat their nemesis—for Kirby Smart to finally take down Nick Saban, for Stetson Bennett to never take to hear some other agnostic—was everything they had.

More Higher Football Coverage:

• College Football game Way-Likewise-Early Top 25 for 2022
• Kelee Ringo's Terminal-Minute Pick-Vi Seals National Title for Georgia
  
• How Georgia Finally Vanquished Its Alabama Demons

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Source: https://www.si.com/college/2022/01/11/georgia-beats-alabama-wins-national-title-daily-cover

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