The 2021 college football season ends tonight when the Georgia Bulldogs take on the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. The two teams played in December in the SEC Championship, and Alabama came away with a 41-24 victory. Will Alabama win Round 2 or is it Georgia’s time to shine? PopCulture.com spoke to college football legend and analyst for ESPN’s College Football Gameday Desmond Howard, who believes the game will be one to remember.
“I think it’s going to be extremely competitive,” Howard told PopCulture. “With Alabama winning the SEC championship game, you wonder, when they self-scout, what do they change? What do they tweak? Things that they can do differently? And, Georgia, obviously the team that came up on the short end of the stick, when they met the SCC championship game, they’re going to have to really tweak some stuff, figure out what they need to do differently. What can they change?”
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Howard went on to mention what will be one of the “biggest differences” in tonight’s game. “Alabama won’t have John Metchie III, who’s an outstanding offensive weapon for [Alabama offensive coordinator] Bill O’Brien,” Howard explained. “So they won’t have him, and they got to find somebody to try to replace him or his productivity. Because you really can’t replace Metchie. He was that outstanding of a player. And Georgia, how are they going to approach Alabama’s offense differently? Don’t forget, going to that game, Georgia only allows may be less than eight points a game.”
Since Nick Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007, the Crimson Tide has won six national titles and eight SEC Championships. Since 2008, Alabama has won at least 11 games every year except for one (2010). Georgia is looking to win its first national championship since 1980. The Bulldogs are playing in the national title game for the second time since 2017.
“Going to the SEC championship game, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind as you know, as far as Georgia fans are concerned and players and staff, that they were going to beat Alabama,” Howard said. “This was the team. This team has been constructed to beat Alabama. … So that was such a huge letdown for anybody and everybody associated with the red and black, that you’re looking at this game, like this is the only game that could be the Listerine. This can take the bad taste out of their mouth if they win this game. If they don’t win this game, I don’t know what they’re going to do. I really don’t.”
