SEC Championship Saturday
by GEORGE SOMERVILLE
THE TOUCHDOWN’s SEC CORRESPONDENT
It seems like only a few weeks ago that we were talking at SEC Media Days about the upcoming new season. Then we had the opening weekend of games, and the SEC Championship game seemed a long way off.
But here we are, in December, unbelievably with the SEC football regular season in the rear view mirror.
The pinnacle of the SEC football season is now upon us, with familiar foes Alabama and Georgia going toe-to-toe in Atlanta to determine the outcome of the SEC Championship trophy.
Familiar Foes
Up until last weekend, the makeup of the Championship game was up for grabs. The hot money was on Texas A&M, making their first appearance in the Conference final. However, a defeat to the Longhorns scuppered the Aggies’ hopes.
Elsewhere, Auburn were making life very uncomfortable for Kalen DeBoer and his Crimson Tide. At that point, an Auburn victory would not only have dashed Alabama’s hopes of an SEC Championship appearance but also a spot in the College Football Playoffs.
However, Alabama won out and secured a spot in the SEC Championship game. The Aggies’ disappointment was Georgia’s joy as the Dawgs secured the second Conference final place.
Meaning Alabama is ranked #1, and Georgia is ranked #2.
This meant that for the 14th time, these teams will play in the SEC Championship game. Alabama holds a 9-3 record in this series.
These two teams have dominated the SEC Championship final, and you need to go back to 2013 to find the last time neither Alabama nor Georgia played in this game.
The last time both teams met was in 2023, when Alabama won 27-24.
Of course, the teams have already met once this year during the regular season in Athens. On that occasion, Alabama defeated Georgia 24-21.
Georgia’s Head coach Kirby Smart will make his 5th consecutive appearance in the Championship game. It is also Smart’s eighth appearance in his ten-year reign in Athens. In making five straight games, Smart equals Steve Spurrier’s record set while at Florida during 1992-1996.
In last season’s SEC Championship game, Georgia defeated Texas 22-19 in overtime.
Key Injuries
Both teams enter the game with a conference record of 7-1. Georgia has a total record of 10-1, and Alabama 9-2. The teams are evenly matched.
During Thursday’s press conference, Alabama Head coach Kalen DeBoer confirmed that Alabama’s leader on the defensive line, LT Overton, would not play in the game. This is a massive miss for the Crimson Tide. It has also been confirmed that lineman Kelby Collins will miss the game. This adds to an already lengthy list of Crimson Tide players unfit to play in the SEC Championship game.
Currently, Alabama has ruled out Linebackers Kelly Collins and Jay-Marien Latham, defensive backs Kameron Howard and Dre Kirkpatrick Jr, running back Kevin Riley, offensive lineman Mal Waldrep Jr and Defensive linemen Jeremiah Bearman and LT Overton.
Running back Jam Miller is listed as questionable, as are Tight Ends Josh Cuevas & Danny Lewis Jr, as well as Offensive Lineman Sam Dewberry.
Georgia’s injury list isn’t as lengthy but no less impactful. The most significant loss to the Dawgs is centre Drew Bobo, who has had two separate injuries over the last couple of weeks. Like Overton for Bama, Bobo’s omission is also huge for the Dawgs. Also on the Offensive side of the ball, Wide receiver Colbie Young, Tight End Ethan Barbour and Running back Bo Walker are confirmed as out. On the Defensive side of the ball, Back Kyron Jones and Lineman Jordan Hall are confirmed as missing the game. Outside of Bobo, what will concern Georgia fans most is the appearance of Safety Zion Branch on Thursday’s report as Questionable.
Form going into the game
Both teams hold a 7-1 conference record going into this game. In the College Football Playoff rankings, Georgia is ranked #3, and Alabama is ranked #9. Alabama’s late-season defeat to Oklahoma in week 10 saw the Crimson Tide fall from grace and now sit on the cusp of the Playoff places.
Georgia is undoubtedly a team in ascendency. Following their sole defeat to Alabama in week four, the Dawgs went on an eight-game unbeaten run, including an impressive win over Texas in Austin. It was the convincing manner of this win, winning 35-10 on the road, which made many people sit up and take notice of Georgia, who had been largely flying under the radar at that point.
Conversely, Alabama’s season has been a rollercoaster. A week one defeat to Florida State had commentators and fans alike writing off the Crimson Tide’s challenge early.
However, a run of four consecutive wins against ranked SEC teams – the first time this has happened in SEC history – propelled the Crimson Tide to the top of the SEC and into the top 12 of the College Football Playoff rankings.
However, as Georgia seems to be peaking at the right time, Alabama have stuttered towards the finishing line. The week 10 defeat to Oklahoma dented the confidence of a team that had, until then, looked unbeatable.
Which begs the question – can Georgia and Kirby Smart shake off the Alabama hoodoo?
The coaches
As already mentioned, Georgia’s Kirby Smart has dominated this game since he arrived in Athens. Eight appearances in ten seasons is both impressive and record-breaking. On the flip side, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer makes his debut in this game. The experience of an SEC Championship game could not be more diverse.
However, don’t let that lack of experience mean any less than at Georgia. As they say in these parts, it just means more, which was exactly the message DeBoer was sending.
“We’re just focused on it being the SEC Championship & what that means to our program”, DeBoer said during Thursday’s Head coaches press conference.
“You start the season, and this is the best conference in college football, and to be playing in this game, I tell our guys they earned this.
I mean, we’re the home team, the No. 1 seed. For us, they earned every bit of this opportunity. Great challenge ahead of us, for sure. But man, this is what our program’s been built on, is winning championships. It starts with an SEC Championship”.
Understandably, Kirby Smart was asked about the game and what it meant to him.
“Well, I think it’s been a great honor to play in it, first. I mean, to win SEC Championships are one of the hardest things to do. You look how elusive they’ve been, how few programs have been able to win them across the SEC” said Smart Thursday.
“That’s a credit to getting to the game. It’s even a bigger credit to win the game. It’s usually an indicator of a quality of team you have if you advance to the Playoffs and get to play, back in the four-team model or this model, in terms of the talent level of our conference, the number of teams that have gotten in”.
There has been much discussion about the importance and value of teams playing in conference championship games. However, it is clear that both teams and their Head coaches are in no doubt of the significance of this game. And that will feed through to the game and how it plays out.
The quarterbacks
It’s easy to say in a game like this that success will come down to how each quarterback plays. This is often the case. But this is especially true of this matchup. Both quarterbacks have grown significantly this season.
Alabama’s Simpson finished the regular season with 3,056 passing yards and 25 touchdowns. He added 126 rushing yards and two touchdowns on foot.
The Alabama quarterback reflected on his growth this season ahead of the biggest game of his career on Monday during the SEC Championship Press conference.
“I think it goes back all the way from Florida State to now,” Simpson said on Monday.
“Everything that you go through, everything that you experience, is just another thing that you can learn from. That’s why I’m just appreciative of the growth in my journey of being here.”
Georgia’s Gunnar Stockton has also had an exceptional first season leading the Bulldogs. Stockton led Georgia to an 11-1 record with 2,535 yards and 20 touchdowns in the air and 403 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.
“After the Bama game, our offense and team have grown up a bunch,” Stockton said. “We’ve just been playing pretty good football. We came closer together.”
“Last year it was crazy,” Stockton said on Monday.
“I was preparing each week like I was a starter, just trying to watch a lot of film and be ready. It was hard the whole year just having to make myself watch film through each week, not playing. Then, when the time came, I was ready. I was excited just to go play with my teammates.”
Now Stockton is QB! and knows the pressure and expectations are very different.
“Now, as the starter, it’s a different mindset of leading the team.”
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.