Heisman Trophy winner RB Herschel Walker is long gone from the college game. Still, his exploits are reminiscent of what the University of Georgia will need to do if it hopes to win the 2022 national football championship.
During the 1980-81 college football season, Walker led UGA to a national championship as he ran for 150 yards and two touchdowns on 36 carries in the 1981 Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame.
Now 40+ years later, Georgia’s running game will need to get a similar performance from one or more of its running backs–Zamir White (772 yds rushing, 10 TDs), James Cook (651 yds rushing, 7 TDs), and/or Kenny McIntosh (322 yards rushing, 3 TDs).
As good as is UGA’s defense, it couldn’t contain Alabama’s offense in the 2021 SEC championship game. So there’s a good reason to conclude that Georgia’s defense won’t stop Alabama’s offense, much less contain it, this time. Georgia’s defense will need the Georgia running game to spell them against an Alabama offense that rolled up forty-one points on the Dawg’s then-ranked #2 defense.
Placing any defense on the field against Alabama’s offense is equivalent to chumming the waters in shark-infested territory. It’s the reality Dawg Nation knows all too well. In the recent SEC championship game, Georgia held running back Brian Robinson Jr. to 55 yards and no touchdowns on 16 carries, but Tide quarterback Brice Young threw for 421 yards and three touchdowns.
So, “Defense wins Championships” doesn’t apply to this national championship game. This time, the best defense is a good offense.
It sounds like a no-brainer, yet so many good teams blink and then find themselves down by twenty points to the Tide.
The Bulldogs are favored against Alabama (-3) just as they were in the SEC Championship. Will they be able to do it? On Monday, January 10, we’ll find out starting at 8p (Eastern) in a game that will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
