By Sonny Jones
What a beatdown and a pounding and a real slobberknocker by Georgia on Monday night. Not even a first-quarter mulligan would have helped Texas Christian.
Even Yogi Berra would have admitted college football’s national championship game was, indeed, over before it over. Who’d da thunk it?
The Bulldogs’ 65-7 rout of TCU inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, looked like the varsity team scrimmaging against the intramural champion. In fact, if it had been a high school football game in North Carolina, the final 17 minutes would have been played with a running clock because the margin was greater than 41 points.
Georgia solidified its program as the best in college football with consecutive national championships. Everyone now is chasing the Bulldogs. Quarterback Stetson Bennett threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more to bring to an end a truly amazing story.
After the best semifinal games in the sport’s relatively young playoff history, a pair of New Year’s Eve classics that saw Georgia edge Ohio State 42-41 and TCU knock off Michigan 51-45, Monday’s blowout ended another exciting college football season with a thud unless, of course, you were wearing Georgia red.
It was a tough way for TCU to end its remarkable and unexpected season. The Horned Frogs were just overmatched and overwhelmed from the start and never recovered.
It felt like if Georgia and TCU played 10 times that the Bulldogs would win all 10.
Congratulations to Georgia. A championship well deserved. Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs have left no doubt which team is the best in college football.
BOWLS, BOWLS, BOWLS
Fell just short in the attempt to watch every bowl game. I watched 41 of 43 bowl games either live or on-demand, missing the Sun Bowl on CBS and the Arizona Bowl on Barstool.TV (who knew there was a Barstool.TV?) Couldn’t find a replay of the Sun Bowl, although didn’t look very hard.
Games played: 43 (through Jan. 9)
Games watched live: 23
Games streamed: 18
Games not watched: 2 (Sun, Arizona)
• CITRUS BOWL: LSU 63, Purdue 7
(Played Monday, Jan. 2; watched Sunday, Jan. 9)
Purdue was more like Pur-don’t or P-U without its starting quarterback, who opted out for the NFL draft, and its head coach Jeff Brohm, who left for Louisville. Not even interim assistant coach Drew Brees could help the Boilermakers. LSU beat Alabama, won the SEC West and played in the SEC championship game, was ranked in the top 5 during the season and had its first 10-win season since 2019 in Brian Kelly’s first season in Baton Rouge. Its final score came on a 99-yard intercepion return by Quad Wilson.
TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1972 — The longest winning streak in major professional sports — 33 games — ends when the Bucks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 120-104 behind 39 points by Milwaukee’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
POTATO PICKS TO WATCH TODAY
• NBA: Oklahoma City at Miami, 7:30 p.m., TNT
• BASKETBALL: North Carolina at Virginia, 9 p.m., ESPN
• NBA: Phoenix at Golden State, 10 p.m., TNT
Sonny Jones can be reached at wibbyj@gmail.com.
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