ATHENS – The last SEC championship to be played in the four-team College Football Playoff era will carry fitting drama.
A year from now, if again Georgia and Alabama were to meet in the conference title game with both ranked in the top eight (as the No. 1 Bulldogs and No. 8 Crimson Tide are going into the release of the newest CFP rankings on Tuesday evening), both teams could probably feel secure that they would have spots in the 12-team playoff format that debuts next season.
But the stakes for Saturday’s matchup – the fourth between these two behemoths in the past 12 years with the SEC title on the line, with two more in national championship games – appear the same for both teams. If other conference championships play out as expected, the most likely scenario will be that the SEC winner will advance to the playoff and the loser will brace for players sitting out of its bowl game to protect their draft status.
Going back to the start of its historic national title run, in terms of its positioning in the playoff, Georgia has never played in a regular-season game or SEC title game with this much on the line. The Bulldogs could have lost virtually any other game in that span and still recovered to make the four-team field.
It is a quirk of the playoff selection format and its emphasis on conference championships that Georgia could have lost on Saturday to Georgia Tech – a team demonstrably inferior to Alabama – but still seized a playoff berth by beating Alabama, but that the opposite scenario – beating Tech and then losing to a top-10 team, even in a close game – probably will keep the Bulldogs out.
With many, many marbles on the line, Saturday will be a proper send-off for the SEC title game in the time of the four-team playoff.
Even after participating in 11 SEC championship games as an assistant coach or head coach at Alabama and Georgia – or perhaps because of it – Georgia coach Kirby Smart doesn’t downplay the significance of reaching this stage. Monday, he spoke about his great appreciation for the game having grown up in the SEC footprint, played in the SEC at Georgia and then coached in the conference for the majority of his career.
He made reference to Alabama’s 2011 national title over LSU, when the Tide didn’t even make the SEC title game (having lost the SEC West to the Tigers) but still won the national championship. (Smart was defensive coordinator for coach Nick Saban on that team.) Smart enjoyed similar fortune in 2021, losing to Alabama in the SEC title game but then exacting revenge in the national title game.
“It speaks to how hard it is just to get to the (SEC title) game,” Smart said. “In some ways, I think Alabama and us have been spoiled, and I don’t think some kids appreciate (it). They think it’s a rite of passage and it’s not. It’s some of the greatest venues, environments that I’ve been a part of to play in that game.”
The skirmish at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will appropriately test Smart’s team. Smart gushed in his praise of Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, calling him a “tremendous, tremendous football player.” Smart was asked if Milroe was similar to Heisman Trophy Tim Tebow with his size, speed and running ability. Smart seemed to find the comparison almost comical.
“No offense to Tim Tebow, but this guy’s different,” Smart said.
Smart then went on to liken him to another Heisman winner, Lamar Jackson, who also has won NFL MVP.
“Well, this guy’s a bigger, (more) physical version of that,” Smart said of Milroe. “He’s playing at a different speed than everybody else when you watch it.”
Time ran out on the press conference before Smart could declare Milroe to be similar to Tom Brady but better in big games and that, if he and wife Mary Beth had another child, the baby’s name would be Jalen Milroe Smart.
Listed at 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, Milroe is a bit of a load, and Milroe said on a teleconference Monday that he’s even bigger than that. In addition to a 21/6 touchdown/interception ratio and a 66.4% completion percentage this season, he also has recorded three games in which he has run for 69 yards or more, including a career-high 155 yards with four rushing touchdowns against LSU.
With the Tide’s deep-ball threat – Alabama has 28 pass plays of 30 yards or more, tied for 10th in FBS, according to cfbstats – Georgia will be pressed to prevent big plays in the passing game while also minding Milroe as a danger to extend plays by escaping the pocket or turning into a runner.
“He is going to make plays,” Smart said of Milroe. “I mean, that’s a given. You watch every game he’s played; he has made plays.”
The onus will be on Georgia freshman linebackers C.J. Allen and Jalon Walker to be equal to the test as All-American Jamon Dumas-Johnson continues his recovery from a fractured forearm (Smart deflected a question about his status, deeming him “week to week”). Cornerback Daylen Everette, the weaker of Georgia’s cornerback pair along with Kamari Lassiter, is another.
“I think Daylen’s done a really good job this year,” Lassiter said of Everette. “He’s been able to take some punches and be able to come back every time stronger. He’s gotten better every week.”
He’ll need to be better again this Saturday. The same could be said of the entirety of his team after a so-so performance against Tech.
Alabama and the SEC title game will demand it.
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