UGA Football: These Bulldogs Are Now ‘Legendary’

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett may have said it best just past midnight, a few minutes after No. 3 Georgia knocked off No. 1 Alabama, 33-18, on Monday night to win the 2021 College Football Playoff national championship.

During his TV interview on the field inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Bennett, looking more than a little overwhelmed at what the Bulldogs had just done, said: “Good Lord. Wow.”

That about sums it up, right?

For the first time since that legendary 1980 season of Dooley, Walker, Belue-to-Scott, Woerner and so many more, the Georgia Bulldogs are national champions. It didn’t come easy, not at the end. But nothing truly special comes easy.

When coach Kirby Smart picked up the national championship trophy, he did so with reverence, like it was a precious and priceless religious artifact. He then gave it a kiss before passing it over to running back Zamir White.

“It’s surreal. Look at these fans and the people that traveled,” Smart told ESPN’s Rece Davis during the trophy presentation, pointing to the huge contingent of Georgia fans that made the trip to Indianapolis. “They came up here with confidence, confidence that we were going to take this thing over.

“I can’t tell you how many people reached out to me and believed, and you know who really believed? All these men right here.”

Georgia’s defense, picked apart by Alabama in a 41-24 loss in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 4, took the field Monday and played like it believed. The Crimson Tide made some plays, but for most of the game Georgia held Alabama to field goals. It was 9-6 Alabama at halftime, and there was reason to believe.

In the second half, after defensive lineman Jalen Carter blocked an Alabama field-goal attempt, Georgia’s offense got a spark. James Cook ran for 67 yards and White later scored from the 1-yard line, giving the Bulldogs a 13-12 lead with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

After Alabama went up 18-13 following a Bennett fumble deep in Georgia territory, the Bulldogs kept believing and kept making plays. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Bennett hit Jermaine Burton for 18 yards. Soon after, Bennett hit Adonai Mitchell for a 40-yard score and a 19-18 lead with 8:09 remaining in the game.

“I wasn’t going to be the reason we lost this game,” said Bennett, the former walk-on who was named the Offensive Player of the Game.

“I love these guys,” Bennett added. “I have no words, man. These are the greatest fans in the world. This is the greatest team in the world.”

Winning national championships is incredibly hard — just ask some of Georgia’s legendary coaches. Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach Jack Bauerle coached Georgia’s women for 20 years before winning the first of his seven NCAA team titles. Men’s tennis coach Manuel Diaz took over for Dan Magill in 1989 and lost in the finals of the NCAA tournament five times before winning the first of his four NCAA team titles, in 1999.

Smart led Georgia to the National Championship Game in 2017, his second season as head coach, only to come up short to Alabama in overtime. The Bulldogs were very good the next couple of seasons but didn’t make the Playoff until this season, Smart’s sixth. Again, nothing special comes easy.

After the game, as the Bulldogs celebrated amid the shower of confetti falling all over them, I thought of junior linebacker Nolan Smith. During his media session last week, he talked about how he felt after losing the SEC Championship Game.

“Want the honest-to-God truth? I cried,” he said. “I’m 20 now. I’ve been playing football since I was 4 —16 years, haven’t won anything. Haven’t won a championship. I won a couple of bowl games but anything big, any championship, I never won yet.

“And that’s one thing that keeps me going. That’s just something in the back of my head that I know that keeps me driving and I just want to win. I couldn’t care less how it gets done, how pretty it looks; I just want to win and play ball.”

It wasn’t always pretty Monday night in a game that was as physical and demanding as any played in college football this season, but it was gorgeous at the end. Safety Lewis Cine, who was excellent and made plays all over the field, was named the Defensive Player of the Game, but the honor could have gone to Smith or linebacker Channing Tindall or cornerback Kelee Ringo after his win-sealing 79-yard interception return for a touchdown with 54 seconds left in the game.

This was a defense loaded with stars, any of them capable of being the most outstanding player in any game. It was a legendary defense that the Bulldogs had in 2021, the nation’s best from start to finish. Which brings us back to something else Smith said last week.

When he was asked about Georgia’s national championship drought since the 1980 team and whether that served as motivation, Smith, who sacked Alabama quarterback Bryce Young on the final play of the game, said that it “100%” did.

“To be the first since the drought, I tell people, you’ll be a Georgia legend no matter if you’re from inside the state of Georgia or outside of Georgia; you’re going to be Georgia legend. We came in to be legendary, be special, leave your mark,” Smith said. “Like I say, I want to bring my kid back and tell him this is what I did. I want to leave my mark. I don’t just want to be another University of Georgia player.”

Smith most definitely is not just another Georgia player. None of these Bulldogs are. They’re national champions. Legendary.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He’s also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.