For over 40 years the Georgia Bulldogs quest to get back atop the college football landscape was foiled by familiar foes. In recent years, it was head coach Kirby Smart's old team, Alabama, which proved to be the biggest roadblock. Last year, Georgia finally scaled the mountain that was the Crimson Tide and won their first title since 1980.
This year, they became the first repeat champion since Alabama over a decade ago, claiming the 2023 College Football National Championship in a convincing 65-7 victory over TCU on Monday in front of a divided and deafening crowd of 72,628 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
While Monday's contest was not quite as dramatic as either team's semifinal victories a week earlier, nonetheless Georgia capped off a perfect 15-0 season with an effortless display of dominance in their blowout win over the Horned Frogs.
"I don't have an answer for that. I think our preparation was really good," said Smart when asked why Georgia's victory over TCU looked so easy. "I'll be honest with you, I was little concerned that we were too tired...I did have a feeling that our offense had a really good game plan. If we execute this plan we're going to attack these guys and we're going to be really aggressive."
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With their second straight championship, Georgia's place in the Pantheon of the best college football programs in the country is secure. They join Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Florida, Ohio State, Florida State, and USC as the only programs to win multiple titles in the modern era (since 1998), and become the sixth team from the Southeastern Conference to win the championship in the last eight years.
"It's special," said Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett IV after the win. "It seems like for the past three to four months we've been looking to see if somebody could beat us and we just ran out of games. Nobody could."
Georgia's back-to-back titles are thanks in large part to one of the best defenses in the country over the past two years. That defense was once again at its best on Monday, as they flexed their might on the game's biggest stage.
Entering the national championship game, TCU was averaging 41.1 points per game on the season, and coming off a 51-point performance against undefeated Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl. But the Horned Frogs were no match for the Bulldogs in the title game, as Georgia's defense held the fifth-best offense in the country to just 7 points.
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For most people, this should not come as surprise. George finished the season with the second-best run defense and fifth-best scoring defense in the country. Thanks in large part to their defense, they led the nation in point differential with an eye-popping mark of +402 (including the championship) this season.
"I was proud of the defense tonight," said Smart. "After two outings in which we did not perform well, I thought our defense really performed well tonight with their backs against the wall."
Georgia began the season with the third-best odds to repeat as champions, behind only Alabama and Ohio State. The reigning champions were ranked as the No. 1 team in the country for most of the season. The Bulldogs took over the top spot in the rankings after Week 7 and remained there for the final eight polls of the season.
In the final game of his collegiate career, Heisman Trophy finalist Stetson Bennett IV was named the game's Most Valuable Player, throwing for 304 yards and four touchdowns, and running for two more, as the 25-year-old quarterback cemented his status as one of college football's all-time greats, leading the Bulldogs to back-to-back titles during his tenure.
"I think 20 years from now when he comes back we'll talk about if he [Bennett IV] should be in the college football Hall of Fame," said Smart about his quarterback. "But I know he's got G.O.A.T. status in Athens, Georgia forever."
Bennett's six total touchdowns tied Joe Burrow for the most in a championship game during the College Football Playoff era.
"We had a really good offense. It makes me proud of what I've accomplished when I hear that because it means I've done some things right," said Bennett IV. "If you had told me three years ago that this would happen, I mean, I wouldn't believe them."
After winning the coin-toss and choosing to defer, Georgia held TCU to a three-and-out on the game's opening drive and would go on to dominate the game from that point forward.
Bennett scrambled for a 21-yard touchdown run on the Bulldog's first drive to start the scoring. Three plays later, the Bulldogs defense recorded their first of three turnovers when they forced a fumble, and just like that Georgia was up 10-0 early in the game.
TCU answered on the ensuing drive. Another Heisman Trophy finalist, Max Duggan, found Derius Davis open on a 60-yard pass, and later scored on a QB keeper to put the Horned Frogs on the board, 10-7.
"Georgia did a great job and got off to a fast start," said TCU head coach Sonny Dykes. "We answered. Cut it to 10-7. And then for whatever reason it went downhill from there."
Unfortunately for TCU, that would be their only score, and as close as they would ever get to the mighty Bulldogs. Bennett found a wide-open Ladd McConkey four plays later on a 41-yard touchdown pass that gave Georgia a 17-7 lead, and the rout was on.
Bennett tied former Texas QB Vince Young for the most rushing touchdowns in a title game when he ran six-yards for the score on Georgia's next possession. Young famously ran for the game-winning touchdown against USC in the 2006 national championship game at the Rose Bowl.
After back-to-back interceptions by Duggan, Georgia would score two more times before the half, entering the locker room with the most points scored in the first half of a national championship game in the College Football Playoff era, leading TCU 38-7.
"They're a great team. Everybody knows ho good they've been this year and prior years and we knew that," said Duggan of Georgia. "I think tonight was one of those nights where at least offensively we couldn't get anything rolling. They were playing well on defense. We were shooting ourselves in the foot. I was making bad decisions. I wasn't executing well and not putting us in a position to score some points and move the ball."
TCU forced Georgia into a three-and-out to start the second half, but the Bulldogs would score on their next four possessions, opening up a 65-7 lead early in the fourth quarter, the largest differential—58 points—in the history of the national championship game (dating back to 1985).
The 65 total points scored in the game by Georgia was also the most ever scored in a title game in history, eclipsing the previous mark of 62 scored by Nebraska in their 1996 Fiesta Bowl victory over Florida, 62-24. It was also This the largest margin of victory in a bowl game in college football history.
TCU and Georgia have now met five times in their school histories, with the Bulldogs winning all five contests, improving to a perfect 5-0 against the Horned Frogs.
When the game finally ended, and a sea of red poured onto the field, it was more of a relief than exultation. The lasting image from the 2023 National Championship game was that of an entire empty side of SoFi Stadium behind the TCU bench, as the Horned Frogs fans had long exited the stadium.
