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Alabama could become the first school in the College Football Playoff era (since 2014) to repeat as national champions. Or Georgia may win its first national title since the 1980 season by getting revenge for its lone loss of the 2021 campaign thus far.
Either way, Monday’s CFP National Championship Game should be exciting to watch. And one of these SEC teams will be celebrating with the national title to conclude the season.
This will be a rematch of last month’s SEC Championship Game. In that contest, Alabama became the only team to beat Georgia this season, notching a 41-24 victory and securing the No. 1 seed in the CFP in the process. The Bulldogs still made it to the Playoff as the No. 3 seed despite that loss.
Now, the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs will meet again with the stakes raised. Alabama beat Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl and Georgia defeated Michigan in the Orange Bowl, as both teams cruised to CFP semifinal victories.
Heading into this season’s CFP National Championship Game, here are the top storylines to watch.
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Georgia has allowed 135 points this season, which averages out to 9.64 per game. However, when it played in the SEC Championship Game, it gave up 41 points to Alabama, which became the only team capable of putting up substantial offense against the Bulldogs.
It’s not a huge surprise that the Crimson Tide’s offense had success. Sophomore quarterback Bryce Young is having a tremendous season, and prior to winning the Heisman Trophy, he passed for 421 yards and three touchdowns and had a rushing score against Georgia.
If the Bulldogs hope to produce a different result against the Tide, they’re going to need to do a better job of containing Young. In order to do that, they may need to put more pressure on Young, as Georgia had no sacks in the SEC Championship Game.
“We say all the time here the best rush is the best coverage, and we’ve got to get to the quarterback. There’s nothing else about it,” Bulldogs junior linebacker Nolan Smith said, per Joey Blackwell of Sports Illustrated. “Last game, we did not do that. And I know a lot of people felt hurt after that one.”
On the other side, Alabama’s offense won’t have wide receiver John Metchie III this time, as the junior suffered a torn ACL in the previous meeting with Georgia. So the Crimson Tide will need to find a way to have offensive success vs. the Bulldogs without one of their key playmakers on the field.
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Stetson Bennett didn’t put up flashy numbers for most of the season, but Georgia also had big leads in a lot of its games. Still, there were some who questioned whether the senior quarterback gave the Bulldogs the best chance to win, especially with junior JT Daniels also on the roster.
Bennett then made a statement with his performance in the Orange Bowl, as he passed for 313 yards and three touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ victory over Michigan. That came after Bennett threw for 340 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions vs. Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.
Crimson Tide sophomore linebacker Will Anderson Jr. believes he knows what his team’s defense needs to do in order to limit Bennett’s production and try to stop the Bulldogs’ offense.
“We just have to contain him,” Anderson said, per Nick Kosko of 247Sports.com. “I think that’s the biggest part of his game is his legs and him running all around the field. We just have to contain him in the pocket and make sure he’s not running all over the field on us and stuff like that.”
If Alabama can’t do that, then Bennett may keep his momentum going and have another strong performance. And if he does, then the QB may just lead Georgia to the national title.
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Alabama head coach Nick Saban is 25-1 when one of his former assistants is the head coach on the opposing sideline. He had an unblemished record in those games until the Crimson Tide lost to Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M squad on Oct. 9.
Although Saban is no longer perfect against his former students, he still is undefeated against Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who was the defensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008-15. The Bulldogs are 0-4 against the Crimson Tide since Smart came to Georgia in the 2016 season.
Smart recently noted that the Bulldogs aren’t the only team that has struggled against the Tide in recent years, considering Alabama is a perennial championship contender that has reached the CFP in seven of the first eight years of the system.
“They’ve played they have a really good football team, really good coach, really good program,” Smart said, per Dean Legge of Dawg Post. “It starts with really good football players. And they’ve done a good job recruiting those.”
Can Smart finally take down his old boss? Or will Saban add yet another win against a former assistant? If Smart hopes to lead Georgia to a national title, then he may eventually need to find a way to beat Alabama.
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