Dominant Dawgs Roll TCU as Georgia Claims Its Second Straight Title

Here are five takeaways from Monday’s national championship blowout.

Georgia has done it. It may have been differently dominant this season after replacing so many defensive starters, but Kirby Smart’s men reign supreme over the college football universe as national champions yet again. 

The Dawgs made it look easy in their historic 65–7 blowout of TCU in a title game that was basically over at halftime. They join rarified air as repeat national champs and can lay claim to Alabama’s perch as the new standard in college football. Georgia was just better Monday—it doesn’t get much deeper than that. The Dawgs were bigger, stronger and faster than the Horned Frogs, doing everything that Michigan failed to do to end TCU’s magical run.

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Stetson Bennett shined again to lead the Bulldogs’ rout :: John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated

Here are five takeaways from the title game:

• Georgia’s certainly making up for the 40 years it spent in the wilderness without a title. It’s now won two straight which makes the Dawgs only the third team since 1990 to win back-to-back titles and the eighth to do so in 80 years. Despite college football’s lack of parity, reaching the mountaintop is difficult. Smart and Georgia have done it two straight years now.

• Kelee Ringo came to play. Ringo had a tough time in the Peach Bowl trying to defend Ohio State star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., but he certainly bounced back with main duties on Quentin Johnston. The standout TCU WR is the type of pass-catcher Ringo defends well, physically without too much change of direction to his game. Johnston’s only major impact was as a decoy in the first quarter for the Frogs’ biggest play of the evening. In another national title game, Ringo went a long way to getting UGA its ring.

• In the battle of offensive coordinators, Todd Monken reigned supreme. Monken used TCU’s vaunted 3-3-5 defensive aggressiveness against itself, with screens to neutralize the Frogs and movement both pre- and post-snap to keep them off balance. The Dawgs even mixed in some uptempo to hit big plays. At times, UGA looked like it was multiple steps ahead of TCU. Georgia feasted in the first half particularly using a sugar huddle, which is virtually a hybrid of a regular huddle and a full no-huddle. It keeps the defense off base, especially when Georgia breaks that huddle into condensed sets like it did on an early touchdown pass

• Stetson Bennett hit big plays passing the ball, but it's what he did running that gave Georgia an extra gear.

This designed run was reminiscent of the TD he scored against Ohio State

And this tricky evasion of pressure was all instinct.

Bennett on wheels ⚡️#NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/ln2UVNDOXy

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) January 10, 2023

Seeing Bennett create with his legs on this night—the culmination of his college career—is another testament to how he’s grown. There is nothing that can be taken away from Stetson Bennett. It doesn’t matter what he may or may not do in the pros, he has been the steady captain of Georgia’s ship on offense and will go down as perhaps the best quarterback in school history. The Dawgs coaching staff gave him a curtain call early in the fourth quarter for a job well done.

• On top of everything, Georgia was able to play a clean game as well. Whereas Michigan threw two pick-sixes against TCU and had two drives stopped on the goal line, the Dawgs moved through the Frogs with ease, motivated by the fact that they felt they didn’t play anywhere near their best game against Ohio State. TCU was always going to need some luck in this game, and it didn’t get it. In many ways, Georgia executed what Michigan couldn’t and proved why it’s a cut above the rest.