Thursday Dawg Bites

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

To quote the great Michael Scott, “No question about it, I am ready to be hurt again.”

For everyone reading this who is currently over the age of 4; you’ve seen this song, you’ve seen this dance, and you’ve seen this song and dance.

The Georgia Bulldogs once again play the Alabama Crimson Tide in Atlanta for the SEC Championship. The Bulldogs once again come in as the favorite, as the team who is playing better football, and as the team with as much or more talent than any team in the country.

Yet at that same time, once again we know how this ends. You know what they say, you can take the Munson out of the booth but you can’t take the Munson out of the fans. His notoriously pessimistic expectations are ingrained in the DNA of Dawgs fans even two decades after his retirement.

If you want to try and build some optimism for the matchup, there are a lot of things you could look at, even in Georgia’s loss to the Tide earlier this season.

In that game, Georgia shut Alabama out in the second half after making major adjustments on defense, most notably when it comes to affecting the QB. The Dawgs had a drop on what would have been the easiest touchdown of the year and were still one personnel change away from taking the lead in the fourth quarter. (For what it’s worth, I am the proud owner of a Cash Jones Ready Mix shirt, but I do not want to see the namesake get another carry on 4th and 1.)

Since that game, the aforementioned Alabama QB has regressed, and athletic defenses like Oklahoma and Auburn have shown more ways to slow the offense down. The also-aforementioned Georgia defense, on the other hand, has progressed in the last month. They have not allowed more than 21 points since mid-October and have finally found ways to pressure opposing quarterbacks consistently.

But we all know that none of that matters when these two teams square off.

In 2021, we saw one of the most dominant defenses of all time get torched by a team who needed 4 OTs to beat unranked Auburn the week prior. In 2023, we saw the most dominant run in SEC history ended by a struggling Alabama team who, once again, needed an absolute miracle to beat unranked Auburn the week prior.

So here we are, another odd-numbered year, with Georgia playing well and Alabama coming off a 1-possession win over unranked Auburn. Another SEC Championship Game against Alabama wearing our away whites in our home state.

If this is the game where Georgia finally turns the tide and renames “Tuscaloosa East” to “Athens West”, then they will have to get off to a strong start. In the two meetings of these programs since Nick Saban retired, Georgia has outscored Alabama by a combined 34-11 in the second halves, yet Georgia is 0-2 in those games.

Kalen and Co. seem to be great at coming up with gameplans against Kirby and Co., while Kirby and Co. seem to be great at coming up with in-game adjustments against Kalen and Co.

If the Dawgs can get off to a somewhat normal start and avoid turnovers in the first half, then you have to like the chances of a win. This team is resilient and will never quit, but it’s nice when they have a lead and that’s not even an option.

Kirby has made it clear for weeks that he wants to win the SEC this year and every year. And now that he knows the opponent is Alabama, giving him another chance to get the monkey further off his back, you know he wants it even more.

Plenty of fans have said that this game doesn’t mean much with our spot in the playoffs already locked, but that won’t stop anyone from yelling at the TV after a missed tackle or a seemingly obvious holding call that goes unpenalized. I personally have been growing out my fingernails all week so I can have something to nervously bite during the game.

Saturday will be a big day no matter what. We’ll either find ourselves in a familiar position wondering what went wrong, why we can’t beat Alabama, and pessimistic about the rest of the season. Or we’ll find ourselves in another familiar position: champions of the SEC.

Like a fireman picking the easiest way to climb to the second story, I’m choosing the latter.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos