The Play that Changed History for the Georgia Bulldogs
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ATHENS - The College Football Playoffs begin on New Years’ Eve. After winning the CFP National Championship last season and placing a history-making fifteen players in the NFL draft, most doubted that the Georgia Bulldogs would be the favorite to win it again this year.
Georgia’s fans can be forgiven for believing this year that a Championship is certainly possible. Before this year’s story is written, however, let us look back on the play that changed everything for a tortured fan base that had been waiting more than four decades to once again be crowned College Football’s best.
During a fifteen second span, just before midnight, on January 10, 2022, everything changed for Dawg fans. There were many memorable moments that will endure from the Bulldogs’ 33-18 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide, but it is one play that truly (and finally) made Dawg fans believe their team not only could but would win it all.
In case anyone forgot, after a disastrous controversial fumble and subsequent Alabama touchdown, The Tide reclaimed the lead at 18-13, with just over ten minutes to play. Georgia’s quarterback Stetson Bennett IV – the former walk-on dubbed “The Mailman” – in one of the greatest stretches of championship football, ignored the doubters and the ghosts of Georgia’s past, to lead two touchdown drives.
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Georgia would regain the lead 19-18, by The Mailman’s brilliant 40-yard rainbow touchdown throw from the heavens to true freshman Adonai Mitchell. “Adonai” in Hebrew means the Lord, and Georgia fans looking for divine intervention may have received it by way of Bennett’s pass and Mitchell’s catch – both otherworldly. That play will rightfully be featured on every Georgia highlight reel for eternity. But it was not THE play that changed everything.
There was still over eight minutes left in the game. Georgia’s historic defense stymied Alabama’s next offensive possession and Bennett again led the Bulldogs on a fantastic touchdown drive – culminating in a 15-yard touchdown by all-world freshman tight end Brock Bowers. Given well-documented late game collapses at the hands of Alabama, things were looking somewhere between ok and pretty good with the Dawgs now leading 26-18 and about three and a half minutes left in the game.
Alabama would need to drive 75 yards to score a touchdown and convert on a two-point attempt just to tie the game. This was far from impossible, however, with Alabama’s Heisman winning quarterback Bryce Young. It was hard for UGA fans not to think of the gut-wrenching overtime loss to Bama in the Championship four years earlier. Georgia’s defense was very good back then, but now it had the best defense in the country, and it had been performing all game in keeping with its historic reputation – holding the mighty Alabama to just 15 points in four trips inside Georgia’s 20-yard line and zero points on a few more trips inside Georgia’s 40-yard line. So, it made sense that there should be hope of victory, maybe plenty of it – even if most Georgia fans refused to say it out loud.
And then, with just over a minute left in the game and Bama’s offense driving across midfield, it happened. Alabama’s Young underthrew his receiver and Georgia defensive back Keele Ringo tracking it all the way, high-pointed and intercepted the pass at Georgia’s 21-yard line. Ringo a redshirt freshman, unable to play the prior year due to an injury, was as “blue-chip” of a recruit as they come. He was rated as a 5-Star and the number one cornerback coming out of High School. No need for spoiler-alerts as you likely know that Ringo returned the interception for a 79-yard touchdown (aka a “Pick 6”) and Georgia would go up by fifteen points (33 - 18) - the eventual final score.
I watched this play about one hundred times in the first 48 hours after it happened – it had become like the Zapruder film for me. There were YouTube compilation videos of fan reactions to this play from their homes, at bars and from the game itself. There are clips of the play set to music – clearly the best of which is to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” from the Titanic Soundtrack. This is the play that changed the mindset of many Georgia fans. Yet, the change was evolutionary in nature, even though the “evolution” here happened frame-by-frame in stages as the play developed over just a matter of seconds.
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When the ball was snapped to Alabama’s Bryce Young, UGA lead 26-18 with one minute and nine seconds (1:09) left in the game and Alabama had all three of its timeouts remaining. Young’s pass leaves his hand with the game clock at 1:06 and at the 1:05 mark it is clear Ringo has it lined up, as he jumps high in the air to intercept the ball, landing on his feet at 1:04. At this moment, with Ringo securing the interception, Georgia fans go crazy, erupting with screams of jubilation and seem to believe that “this time” Georgia really, really “just might” win this game. Most fans, like Coach Smart who can be seen on the sideline initially signaling to Ringo, wanted him to get down on the ground rather than risk a fumble on an attempt to advance the ball further. That would have given Georgia the ball around its own 20-yard line with an opportunity to run out the clock – needing only one first down to do so. Except, in that moment is that what a world-class athlete like Ringo is likely to do? Is that how you “slay the dragon”? Bama would still have had a chance to force a punt if Georgia’s offense did not get a first down. And if that happened, Bryce Young and Alabama would have another chance to break Georgia’s heart. Kelee’s split second decision to either take a knee or take off was essentially a choice between leaving the outcome up to the very capable offense or ending things right there, ruthlessly with the historic defense.
Of course, Ringo chose the latter and changed everything. Keele takes off down the sideline, along with many of his teammates who are looking for Alabama players to block and clear a path to the endzone. Football being the ultimate team game, it often includes contributions of various amounts from all levels of player and many blue-chip future NFL players contributed by making blocks on this historic interception return. As Ringo streaks down the field, Georgia fans – shrieking and jumping up and down repeatedly, start thinking of the possibilities. Could Kelee return this interception 79-yards for a touchdown? There is almost a slight lull in the hysteria as fans collective think: wait, if that happens… Georgia is up by two touchdowns with less than a minute to go in the game and will certainly…. Ringo picks up a block from a teammate as the game clock strikes 1:03, sprints to midfield by the one-minute mark, picks up another block near Alabama’s 30-yard line with 58 seconds remaining and still another at the 0:57 mark, as Ringo crosses the 25-yard line and evades a would-be tackler and weaves through traffic. At this point, it looks like a clear path to the endzone, but for one streaking Alabama player that might have the angle on Ringo with the ability to make a touchdown-saving tackle. With fifty-five seconds on the clock Ringo is at Alabama’s 10-yard line and so is his teammate, Dan Jackson (number 47) who has identified the last of the Alabama threats.
Jackson, a walk-on safety, has raced these 70 yards alongside future NFL star Ringo. At about the Alabama 7-yard line (with the clock still at 0:55), Jackson squares up the last hope for Alabama and gets absolutely obliterated. Like his teammates had been doing all night and all year, Jackson sacrificed himself for the team – a sacrifice many Georgia fans would have gladly made themselves (and it seems many where worse for the wear than Jackson after their celebrations). Touchdown! Keele Ringo scores one second later with 54 seconds left in the game. The interception and “Pick-6” many would go on to call the “Chip-6” – changed everything, while securing that elusive College Football Championship for the Dawgs from Athens, Georgia.
As Ringo crosses the goal line, the fans’ (slight) lull in their hysteria is no more. Fans are (finally) able to admit to themselves, and even out loud, that Georgia WILL (most likely) be National Champs! The Dream (with nightmare visions) has evolved to reality, during fifteen seconds (and flashbacks of memories from lifetimes) that this play covered. Sure, the clock “still” had to hit zero for fans to truly, truly believe, but up 15 points with under a minute to play, was the moment when it was (just about) safe for Dawg fans to scream, what became the undeniable truth: Dawgs on Top!