The 2022 college football season officially ends tonight. SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will host the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship game, and the two teams competing in the contest are the TCU Horned Frogs and the Georgia Bulldogs. The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. It will also stream on Watch ESPN and the ESPN App.
TCU (13-1) has had a season to remember. After going undefeated in the regular season, the Horned Frogs lost to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship by three points. But TCU did enough to qualify for the College Football Playoff and beat Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl which was the College Football Playoff semifinal matchup. One big reason for the team’s success is quarterback Max Duggan who has thrown for 3,546 yards and 32 touchdowns. He has also rushed for 683 yards and eight scores.
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“We’re in the National Championship Game. So there’s obviously a ton of motivation to go out and play well,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said in a press conference on Saturday. “It’s hard to get here. It’s a difficult road for any college football team just making it through the season. There’s so many things that have to happen for you to have a chance to play for a national championship, just from obviously staying healthy to figuring out ways to win games when you don’t play your best. That’s going to happen every year. There’s going to be two or three games that you have to go out and figure out how to win because there’s going to be some things that, some situations where the ball doesn’t bounce your way.”
Georgia (14-0) is the defending national champions and looking to be the first team in 10 years to win back-to-back national titles. The last time Georgia lost a game was in the 2021 SEC Championship Game against Alabama. The last time the Bulldogs lost a regular season game was in October 2020 when they faced Florida. Georgia has talented players on both sides of the ball, but quarterback Stetson Bennett has been one of the most successful quarterbacks in college football history, winning an SEC Championship, winning the national championship, winning the national championship MVP award, winning the SEC Championship game MVP award and winning the Burlsworth Trophy which is given to the top college football player who started his career as a walk-on.
“We learned a lot about our team,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said at a press conference on Saturday. “It’s one of those things I think every year you do. The journey is what we do this for. You think about this time last year, who we were and who we are now, it couldn’t be further from the same team, just very different mental makeup, physical makeup, very different path to get here. But the journey is what it’s about. And these guys have everything we’ve asked. I’ve just been so pleased with the mental makeup and the character of this team.”
