The Roles Are Reversed For Georgia and Alabama in the SEC Championship Game
When Kirby Smart was first announced as Georgia's new Head Football Coach in December of 2015, Alabama was not only the titan of the SEC, but the preeminent program in all of America. Smart, himself, had helped lead the Crimson Tide to three national championships in a four-year span from 2009-2012. Then, after he was hired at Georgia, Smart agreed to continue to serve as Alabama's defensive coordinator through the College Football Playoffs and helped the program win yet another national championship just over a month after he was hired by his alma mater.
While it was never said aloud by anyone associated with the program, given Smart's background and the resources and potential of the Georgia program, there was a hope, if not an outright unspoken expectation that Smart could eventually elevate and transform what had been a successful, but perennially underachieving program into the sport's next "Alabama." But, of course, in order for that vision to become a reality, the Bulldogs would first have to conquer Alabama and would have to do so at the height of its powers, an ambitious goal for any program, let alone a program that had spent the better part of the previous twenty years knocking on the door of elite status, but never quite able to find a way to step through that door. Undaunted, Smart knew his charge and set out on the "hunt" for Alabama.
The hunt would be littered with obstacles and setbacks, including an 8-5 first season in 2016 that had some openly questioning whether Smart was the man for the job, after all. In year two, however, Smart engineered a dramatic turnaround that saw the Bulldogs earn an opportunity to play for a national championship for the first time since 1982 against, of course, Alabama. In that matchup, Georgia came agonizingly close to knocking off the Crimson Tide before ultimately falling in heartbreak fashion 26-23 in overtime when freshman Tua Tagovailoa, who was inserted into the game in place of starter Jalen Hurts in the second half, threw a game-winning touchdown pass on 2nd-and-26. The hunt would continue.
A year later, the Bulldogs earned another shot at Alabama, this time in the 2018 SEC Championship Game. Once again, however, the Bulldogs would fail to conquer the mighty Crimson Tide. After jumping out to an early lead and carrying a 28-14 lead late into the third quarter, the Bulldogs suffered another heart-wrenching loss when, this time around, Hurts came off of the bench to replace an injured Tagovailoa and lead Alabama to a 35-28 comeback victory. The hunt would continue.
After an interlude that saw Georgia drop a game in Tuscaloosa during the COVID-shortened 2020 regular season, the top-ranked Bulldogs and second-ranked Crimson Tide squared off once again in a championship setting in the 2021 SEC Championship Game. This time, however, there was no heartbreaking finish as the reigning national champion Crimson Tide rode a dominant second quarter to a 41-24 victory over No.1 Georgia. Yet again, the hunt would continue.
However, Georgia would not have to stew long on its latest unsuccessful attempt to overcome Alabama as the two programs would meet again a month later in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Finally, on a cold January night in Indianapolis, the Bulldogs would play well enough from start to finish to defeat Alabama 33-18 to win the program's first national championship in 41 interminable years. The hunt was finally over.
Georgia CB Kelee Ringo (5) puts an exclamation point on Georgia's 33-18 win over Alabama in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship Game with a game-sealing pick-six. Photo- Tony
After finally conquering the Crimson Tide and getting over the national championship hurdle, the dynamic between the two programs shifted. Georgia entered the 2022 season with an opportunity to further cement itself as the new force in college football; to prove that it was not just Alabama's equal, but that it had ascended to a level above all others in the modern college football landscape, above even the mighty Crimson Tide. And it did exactly that, putting together an undefeated season en route to its second-consecutive national championship, which it won in emphatic fashion with a record-breaking 65-7 victory over TCU. The new reality was clear: Georgia was no longer the hunter, it had become the hunted.
This season, that reality has only intensified as Georgia has continued to defeat all challengers and, in the process, set a new SEC record with 29-consecutive wins, breaking a record previously held by two different Alabama teams. The Bulldogs have held the poll position in the AP rankings from the opening week of the season and will carry that top-ranking into Saturday's SEC Championship. And with those accomplishments comes a new role. Despite Kirby Smart's protestations to the contrary, Georgia is no longer a predator on the prowl seeking to dethrone a sitting king, it is the king endeavoring to maintain its hold on its throne.
Alabama, for its part, is still one of the power programs in the country, but with Georgia universally recognized as the reigning king of the college football world and the Crimson Tide no longer dominating its opponents as it once did so routinely, Alabama has been relegated to the unfamiliar role of the hunter. Sure, Alabama was a slight underdog to Georgia in both matchups during the 2021 season, but many around the country still expected the Crimson Tide to win those games, regardless of the point-spreads. The feeling is different this year.
Rational college football observers understand that Alabama, with its abundance of elite talent, is fully capable of beating Georgia, but the difference this year is that is no longer the expectation. It is no longer an inevitability as it so often felt ahead of previous matchups between Georgia and Alabama. Not only is Georgia the favorite in the minds of oddsmakers, it is now the team that the average college football fan expects to defeat Alabama, and that expectation represents an entirely new dynamic between the two SEC powerhouses.
Does this reversal of roles between Georgia and Alabama mean that the Bulldogs will necessarily roll over the Crimson Tide on Saturday? Of course not, but it makes it even more fascinating to watch how it will play out.
