Legge's Thoughts: Georgia and Alabama Prepare for a 12-Game Cold War
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ATLANTA - The College Football Hall of Fame is a nice break from the pot-hole ridden ride to and from Birmingham. Atlanta, after all, is the home of our sport - and this league. And what a league it is and will become in a few years when Texas and Oklahoma are included in the Motley Crew that is the Southeastern Conference.
Georgia, which happens to be the only team in the league coming off a national title, tried its best to ignore what its fans have been day drinking about for the last seven months. None of the Dawgs who navigated the press on Wednesday wore rings from their national title season.
Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart cleaned up that he was not retiring, and that he didn’t intend to cause such commotion when he said that he was thinking about it 12 months ago. He was just expressing that he was “worn out” along with the rest of the college football industrial complex.
“You guys are searching, boy. I tell you what any material out there is good material,” he told reporters.
It’s June. Wait - is it July? Yes, we are searching, and when a head coach the likes of Kirby says - jokingly or not - that he’s considering retirement… that’s a story.
“Nothing much meant by it,” he said concluding his remarks about the visit to Texas. “Just frustrated with how it was (in the summer of 2021) and happy with the way it was this June because this June I wouldn’t say was much easier, but it was much better.”
As Lizzo would say: “Anyway…”
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Georgia and Alabama certainly seem like they are eyeing one another for another fight this December. Bama QB Bryce Young said his team is using last season as motivation for this year’s assumed run to Atlanta and beyond.
“Coming up short stings a lot. That has been fueling us,” he said. According to FanDuel, Young has +400 odds to win his 2nd consecutive Heisman Trophy this upcoming season.
Listen close enough and the sycophants out there will talk about how much better Will Anderson is than Young. ALABAMA HAS THE BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER IN THE COUNRY AND THE BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER!
(And lost to Stetson Bennett’s Blue Angel-riding ass - “But the receivers were hurt Pawl... they was hurt.)
Meanwhile, Georgia’s players talked about being motivated by the loss to Alabama, which came BEFORE they beat Alabama to win it all. Any little edge for any player, team or program - that’s what we’ve gotten to these days.
Don’t let my cynicism get in the way of the fun - these two teams are staring one another down. This is about to be a 12-game cold war were we compare results of the Tennessee, Auburn, Vanderbilt and State games like anything that happened in the past necessarily means anything about the future. I’m old enough to remember how bad Alabama looked seven days before they made Georgia look so bad before UGA made... ugh - this is exhausting.
This sport is about now. As Nolan Smith correctly said today, this sport is played where your feet are at that moment. A loss in the regular season between these two teams won’t prevent either team from winning in Atlanta (or in Los Angeles).
This is going to be a fight, and Ohio State is going to be looking on with glee after they manage their way around Notre Dame in week one. The Irish and perhaps the Taters will be watching as well. Might USC and Lincoln Riley take a peek, too? Many of us are assuming Alabama, UGA and Ohio State will be in the playoff later this season - perhaps we are crowning those three programs too early. Perhaps someone else has something in store for college football. Maybe Georgia will lose to Kentucky, or Bama will drop a game to LSU or A&M before getting to Atlanta.
Although they might be two of the “best” teams in college football, we’ve learned over time the “best” four teams don’t always get invitations to the CFP. And that’s what Nick, Kirby, the Tide and Dawgs should be wary of.
A season ago Alabama fought its way into the playoff after playing not so hot against Texas A&M, LSU, Auburn, the Gators and maybe even Arkansas. But Bama got there because they are winners. They understand how to win. The only thing that matters for Alabama, in particular, is winning enough to stay front of mind for the College Football Playoff committee. Any reason to put Alabama “in” will be used. I’m not hating - that’s where we are at.
Does Georgia get that now? They probably will - at least for now. The Dawgs don’t have the man-to-man combat Alabama has in the West this fall. Georgia “should” probably get to Atlanta without a blemish - what does it say if they don’t? How do they lose that game(s)? How to they react?
Alabama showed what being mentally tough is like a season ago. They could have lost to LSU. They did lose to A&M. They certainly should have lost to Auburn. But they didn’t. That says more about Alabama than anything (it might also say they got there when they shouldn’t have last season, and they won’t do the same this fall - we don’t know.)
Still, the default setting for the Tide is to win. Period. And more often than not they do.
What’s Georgia’s default setting? Last year it was to win. But last year is gone.
"We can't look behind us - Behind us is our ego,” Nolan Smith said Wednesday.
Ahead of you is a cold war with the Tide. Prepare accordingly.