By: Gus Wilson

On January 10th, 2022, the Alabama Crimson Tide faced off against the Georgia Bulldogs at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in the College Football Playoff National Championship. The Bulldogs are coming off a dominant win against the Michigan Wolverines in the semifinal 34 to 11. The Crimson Tide also had an impressive win against the number 4 Cincinnati Bearcats 27 to 6. 

The National Championship is a rematch of the SEC Championship. In their first matchup, Alabama crushed Georgia 41-24. However, Georgia opened up the CFP Championship as a 2.5 point favorite. The historically great Georgia defense was going up against the Heisman-winning sophomore quarterback Bryce Young. 

The game started off slow and full of controversy on Alabama’s first offensive drive, where Bryce Young was throwing a pass away after being pressured by potential first-round pick Jordan Davis. The whistle was not blown and they called a fumble recovery for a touchdown on the play. However, it was quickly overturned. The rest of half was an extremely low-scoring game, as Alabama led at halftime 9 to 6.

While the score was relatively low until the fourth quarter., it was full of big plays. George Pickens from the University of Georgia had a 53-yard grab that set them up in field goal range. Jameson Williams, the star wide receiver for Alabama, had a 40-yard reception that led to him sadly tearing his ACL, which may plummet his NFL Draft stock in April. While most of the audience may have fallen asleep after the 3rd quarter, with Georgia leading 13-9, the game turned into a shootout in the final quarter of regulation in the college football season.

Alabama started off with a field goal, then forced a controversial yet outstanding fumble and recovered it inches from out of bounds to set up a Crimson Tide touchdown, but failed on the two-point conversion. Stetson Bennett came back firing with an insane 40-yard touchdown pass to freshman Adonai Mitchell who made an even better catch. Georgia also failed on the two-point conversion. The next score was by freshman tight end for the Bulldogs Brock Bowers to extend the lead to 26 to 18 with a little under 4 minutes less. Bryce Young and the Crimson Tide began to drive down the field and with a little over a minute left in the 4th quarter, Young threw a pick-six to freshman Kelee Ringo to secure the victory for Georgia, 33 to 18.

The University of Georgia Bulldogs won their first national championship since 1980 behind the heroics of walk-on quarterback Stetson Bennett, who won the offensive most valuable player of the championship game.