by Andrew Mbow
On January 9th, 2022, the Georgia Bulldogs slaughtered the TCU Horned Frogs in the College National Football Game. The Bulldogs, led by venerable head coach Kirby Smart, ran up a score of 65-7 against TCU. Not only was this the biggest point differential in a national title game, but the most touchdowns scored in one as well. So, this begs the big question: “What the hell happened,” especially after the nail biting UGA New Year’s Eve Bowl Game against Ohio State Buckeyes.
First, let’s look at each team. The 2022 Georgia Bulldogs. One interesting point about the football playoffs this year was the fact that Georgia almost never made it the National Title game. They were faced with a major talent in C.J. Stroud and the Ohio Buckeyes. The New year’s game is often considered the most electric game of the year, and that held true as Georgia scraped by in a 46-45 shootout. The only reason Georgia won that evening was due to a missed field goal by Ohio as the clock struck midnight on December 31st going into the new year. This showed that Georgia had been putting in the work necessary to play at an elite level, but still needed to fix some flaws in their game. Despite this, 2022 was most certainly the year of the Dawgs, as they posed a very impressive 15-0 season.
Spearheaded by the legendary SEC coach Kirby Smart, the Dawgs have produced nothing but excellence for the past 80 years. There have been hundreds of top tier NFL prospects that merge from the team. Some of these names include Nick Chubb, Matt Stafford, Andrew Thomas, De’Andre Swift, Jordan Davis, Tyson Campbell, and many more. This is standard for Georgia, which picks essentially only 3-star prospects or better. This can be seen in how Georgia has a whopping 14 5-stars on their roster. The Georgia Bulldogs are an explosive, overpowering offense that has no breaks attached to it. The Georgia secondary is the best in the league, giving up only 1156 yards in total, as opposed to their 3080. Despite the fact that they gave up a lot of passing yards, their whopping 41 points per game as their opponents’ average was only 14 points.
This is a far cry from how little 5-stars TCU hosts.
The TCU Horned Frogs were the Cinderella team this year for college football. Texas Christian University, located in Fort Worth, has a student body of about 10,500 students. They are in the Big 12 conference and put up a 5-7 record last year. The Frogs exploded onto the scene this year and were undefeated until they suffered a 31-28 loss to Kansas State very late into the season. Prior to that, they posted a 12-1 record; however, this record wasn’t the Frogs crowning achievement. They defeated number two- ranked Michigan. This was a huge win for the team, lighting a fire in them and convincing them that they may have a chance to beat the goliath that is the Gorgia Bulldogs. However, they would soon come to learn that they were sorely mistaken.
What else went wrong for TCU?
The first thing was the TCU was playing scared the whole time. When I was watching the game, it was pitiful watching grown men run away scared from the Georgia offense, that in its previous game seemed to be nonexistent during the first entire half of the game. Next, is TCU’s turnover problem. TCU turned over the ball enough times for Georgia to score none touchdowns. Lastly, was the fact that the Bulldogs knew they were playing frauds. TCU squeaked out many wins simply because of their very easy schedule.
The Bulldogs are an offensive powerhouse in the SEC. They have proved themselves year after year and are willing to prove it again. TCU is a team with a lot of potential; however, they have yet to harness it. Max Duggan was a good quarterback for them, but in the end, his line sold him out to the unstoppable Georgia front 7. This was nothing more than an unworthy team attempting to usurp a king among kings.
