Georgia puts celebrations on hold, focuses on Alabama rematch in College Football Playoff
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Pieces of red confetti that streamed through the air after Georgia’s decisive Orange Bowl victory on New Year’s Eve stuck in the hair of coach Kirby Smart and ESPN’s Rece Davis during the trophy ceremony.
Smart put the kibosh on any Gatorade dumping after the 34-11 sinking of Michigan in Hard Rock Stadium.
“I was wanting to get a real shower, not a Gatorade bath, because I want to get focused on Alabama,” he said. “To be honest with you guys, I'm not interested in celebrating that. We'll look back on that win and that'll be great, but we're focused on the task ahead, and that's the objective and that's what our guys — they worked their tail off for three to four weeks to get this opportunity, and it was a one-game season, and now it's another one-game season.”
NEVER MISS A MOMENT: Subscriber to our sports newsletter to stay informed!
This wasn’t a dramatic victory like the double overtime Rose Bowl win over Oklahoma in the 2017 season when Davis also presented a trophy to Smart. That was a signature moment in Smart’s second season.
Simply getting to the national championship game in season No. 6 — while not taken for granted — for these Bulldogs isn’t what this season is about.
It’s about winning it all, which means beating Alabama, something it couldn’t do in the SEC championship game in a 41-24 loss and hasn’t done in the last seven tries.
“I think we’re good enough,” quarterback Stetson Bennett said in an-field interview. “Obviously they’re a great team.”
Orange Bowl officials provided champagne in the press box for media members still writing by the time the clock struck midnight and 2022 had arrived.
Many corks will be popped in Indianapolis on the night of Jan. 10 if the Bulldogs can knock off Nick Saban, Bryce Young, Will Anderson and company.
Georgia still cut loose in the postgame moment.
Smart, Bennett, cornerback Derion Kendrick and running back Zamir White tossed oranges from the trophies handed out — for the bowl win and MVPs for Bennett, who completed 21 of 31 passes for 310 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Kendrick who had a pair of interceptions.
Nose guard Jordan Davis cupped his ear to the fans in the stands wearing red and black.
“We put in the work, but we’ve got one more to go,” Davis said into the camera after the game for a video posted by the Georgia football Twitter account. “Let’s be special. I’ll see you in Indy.”
Guard Warren Ericson, screamed: “We’re going to the natty, baby! Let’s go!”
Also traveling to Indianapolis for a Midwest CFP title game will be all too familiar storylines.
Can Smart finally beat Saban after four losses?
Will the Bulldogs finally get over their Alabama hump?
And will that 41-year national title drought come to an end?
Bennett will have a chance to make those answers all yes.
He was a scout teamer in 2017 who never then could have envisioned what’s happened to him as something that could happen.
“No no,” he said. “Every day from then until now you just go about your business and put your best foot forward, and hopefully — you can't predict the future, but hopefully something works out.”
Michigan was held to a season-low point total and gave up a season-high 518 total yards of offense.
That included 190 rushing yards — 5.4 per carry — after being held to 109 — at 3.6 per rush against Alabama.
Continuing to have that kind of balance is what’s needed for Bennett to have a better showing against the Crimson Tide than he did last time.
“They’re going to have to run the football better, ”analyst Booger McFarland said on ESPN. “They’re going to have to have some semblance of a running game because that will take the pressure off Stetson Bennett.”
The Bulldogs will have 10 days between games.
“We're ready to go play regardless of who the opponent is, but just so happens it's Alabama who beat us,” Kendrick said. “We've got to go back and clean up on some things we did and just review over the film and just do what we do."