Kirby Smart has finally slain his dragon. On January 10th, 2022 the Georgia Bulldogs faced off against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the National Championship with the Dawgs coming out on top. It was the matchup that everyone here at The WOLF Sports knew was the endgame for this season. Being a lifelong Georgia sports fan I didn’t have high expectations coming into this game. Whenever we get our hopes up about a major sporting event involving one of the Georgia teams, we all get a little nervous. The Braves seemed to have broken this “curse” but we all know better than that. Throughout the day I kept repeating a line from the new Spider-Man movie, “if you expect disappointment then you can never really be disappointed.” I wasn’t thinking like this because it was a National Championship, but because it was Alabama. Bama, and their fans, have been a major thorn in the side of Georgia for years. I can’t lie, when 8 p.m. came, I was excited but I still had to hold my breath.
Now I have to fess up to something about this season as a whole. First, let me admit that I was wrong. After the team announced that JT Daniels had strained his oblique and that Stetson Bennett would be taking over as the starter, I wasn’t happy. Given the previous season and how he struggled, I only figured that it would have been more of the same. But with the way this season ended, I don’t think I have ever been prouder of a Georgia player than I am of Stetson Bennett. “Damn Good Dawg,” Georgia fans say, when we refer to a former player and if there was a personification of that small phrase it would be Stetson Bennett. The former two-star walk-on was a scout team quarterback in the 2017-2018 season, left to go to a junior college, came back to Georgia as a 5th string quarterback, and worked his way to become the starter of this incredible team. But Stetson now leaves Georgia as a National Champion and a Damn Good Dawg.
As most Georgia sports fans know, the game isn’t over until everyone is shaking hands and walking towards the locker room. Personally, this game was more stressful than the 2018 National Championship between these two teams. The game started as a duel between kickers and this was the first Championship game with no touchdowns in the first half. The score at halftime was 9-6 in favor of Alabama and my anxiety was at a 20 on a scale of 1 to 10. Once the teams came back from the half the Georgia Bulldogs defense took over the game, much like they did the entire season. The Georgia defense only allowed another nine points in the second half and caused Heisman winner Bryce Young to throw two interceptions, one of which was the game-winning Pick Six. And after all I’ve been through as a Georgia fan, it was at that moment that I knew we were National Champions and that I could finally breathe again. I’m incredibly proud to be a Georgia Bulldog fan and the only thing left to say from now until September.
Go Dawgs.
