College Football
Final Four
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The college football season is almost over, and that’s a tough pill to swallow.
The good news, though, is that the last three games are absolute blockbusters—the College Football Playoff semifinals and the championship.
This year’s Final Four brings together some of the biggest names in the game: Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, and Texas.
Before I jump in, let’s take a second to consider that all four teams that received a first-round bye were soundly defeated in the last round. It begs the question as to whether we will see changes to the 12-team playoff format in the future, but that will be another article for another day.
Here’s what I expect as these last four heavyweights fight for the national title.
Orange Bowl: No. 6 Penn State vs. No. 7 Notre Dame: When: Thursday, January 9th, 7:30 PM EST (ESPN). Where: Miami Gardens, Florida.
Penn State has had a wild season. They cruised through the Big Ten schedule before running into an Oregon buzzsaw in the conference championship.
Still, the Nittany Lions bounced back big-time in the playoffs, crushing SMU and Boise State. Their defense is terrifying, led by star edge rusher Abdul Carter, who’s expected to play despite getting banged up last game.
On offense, Penn State is all about consistency, they don’t hit a lot of home runs—think steady singles and doubles, not grand slams.
Notre Dame’s road to the playoffs had its bumps too. They lost early to Northern Illinois (yeah, really), but since then, they’ve been locked in, rattling off 10 straight wins.
Their ground game is a powerhouse, even after losing two NFL-caliber linemen from last year.
Defensively, their secondary is a brick wall, but their run defense has had some cracks, especially with injuries piling up.
This matchup is all about defense. Both teams are loaded on that side of the ball, and neither offense has been lighting up the scoreboard lately.
Penn State’s defense feels more complete, but Notre Dame’s run game is a real wild card. It’s going to be a grind.
Expect a defensive slugfest. The over/under is set at 45.5, and it’s hard to see these teams blowing past that.
Penn State might have a slight edge thanks to their depth and defensive balance.
My Prediction: Penn State 24 Notre Dame 17
Cotton Bowl: No. 5 Texas vs. No. 8 Ohio State: When: Friday, January 10th, 7:30 PM EST (ESPN). Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas.
Ohio State has been on a tear, looking every bit like the best team in the country during the playoffs.
They steamrolled top-seeded Oregon, putting up 500 yards of offense while their defense shut the door.
Freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is already playing like a superstar, and running back TreVeyon Henderson is a scoring machine. Their offensive line, once a concern, has turned into a strength at the perfect time.
Texas hasn’t had the same kind of dominance. They barely survived Arizona State in double overtime, and their defense seemed to run out of gas late in the game.
The Longhorns’ offense has had trouble finishing drives all season, and their red-zone struggles could be a problem against Ohio State, whose defense is elite at shutting teams down inside the 20.
The key here is whether Texas can keep up with Ohio State’s explosive offense. The Buckeyes are firing on all cylinders, and their defense is just as good.
Texas has a strong defensive front, but if they can’t sustain drives or put points on the board, it could be a long night.
Ohio State should have the upper hand. Their offense is rolling, their defense is suffocating, and Texas hasn’t shown they can hang with a team this good.
The Buckeyes are favored by six points, and it wouldn’t be a shock if they cover that easily.
My Prediction: Ohio State 38 Notre Dame 21.
No matter who makes it to the championship game, this year’s playoff has been a thrill ride. Injuries, endurance, and execution will decide it all.
Ohio State looks like the team to beat, but don’t sleep on Penn State’s defense or Notre Dame’s ground game. Even Texas, with their inconsistencies, could pull off a shocker if everything clicks.
The National Championship Game will be played on Monday, January 20th at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
New Tricks Needed?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The signs were always there. The Alabama game. The Ole Miss game. Even plenty of victories: Kentucky, Georgia Tech, and the SEC Championship Game.
It all left everyone, including those within the Georgia football program, questioning if this was a group that actually would keep the legacy going to another championship.
We got that answer in the College Football Playoff. It was definitive. Georgia was not the best team in the country this year and they deserved their fate.
Now it leads to the next mystery: Was this game, and rocky season a kick in the butt to the program? Was this season a message that Georgia’s not the elite it was two years ago?
Does leadership need to change goals and make moves to avoid slipping further?
Although Georgia was ultimately still the SEC champion, they lost in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals when they were down to their backup quarterback.
Kirby Smart said some curious things after the loss to Notre Dame. Let’s start with his post-mortem on the season, which he called “Easily the toughest of my tenure.” That may be a bit of recency bias.
The truth reared its ugly face at The Bulldogs, and it said: Get better as a football program. Let Kirby’s above words sit and remember people- it’s not a second-year coach trying to get his program to another level, but the ninth-year coach of a team that won two of the previous three national titles.
Maybe on some level Kirby Smart mirrors his mentor Nick Saban with the mentality of always trying to improve, even when on top. Or maybe this year’s team is a reflection that this program isn’t on top right now.
There’s no clear answer. You can argue that transfer rules and paying players have changed the game.
The Big Ten and Notre Dame having three of the four semifinalists feed into that argument. But the 2022 season wasn’t that long ago, right? It’s not like this was a crashing disappointment for the Dawgs: They’re 4-1 against teams that made the Playoffs, the only one they lost was in the Playoffs.
There was just something missing, and Smart’s job is to figure out what that was, and to what extent does this team need to change.
Now for some apparent good news: Gunner Stockton looks like a viable starter for 2025-26. His pocket presence needs to improve, but that should grow with experience.
The underrated gap between Carson Beck and Stockton, in a start of this magnitude, may have been game management and making checks at the line, which Stockton acknowledged.
But if it is Stockton, the coaches need to acquire help around them. QBs and Coaches need receivers who won’t drop the ball. Georgia was burned during this portal window by receivers unsure of the identity or throwing ability of Georgia’s quarterback next season.
Maybe Stockton’s play helps convince recruits and transfers.
Let’s be clear. There is risk in overstating what happened in this game. Georgia outgained the Irish and averaged more yards. They reached the red zone more often. It’s not like this was a domination. Georgia belonged on the same field, but Georgia should be the more mature program in the building; all evidence says they were.
Instead, Georgia committed the game’s only two turnovers, gave up a 98-yard kickoff return because of missed tackles, and coach Smart made risks that backfired.
Looking back, much of Georgia’s problem was being outplayed by Notre Dame, especially in the second half, when UGA approached the cusp of another epic comeback and failed: The defense made a big fourth-down stop, handing the offense the ball at midfield. A 10-point game, plenty of time left, momentum at Georgia’s back. But the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize, with go-nowhere plays on third-and-3 and fourth-and-2.
That was yet another mystery about this team. Stockton, whose arm was the question coming in, passed for 234 yards and looked pretty good for a new starter. Georgia just couldn’t run the ball, despite Notre Dame being without its best defensive player, lineman Rylie Mills. The Dawgs also did not protect well, yielding four sacks.
The offense will remain the focus. The defense can reload by retaining the talented youngsters who understudied this year. This Bulldog team will still be young, and this year’s inconsistent play showed that Georgia doesn’t have a birthright to elite defenses in today’s College Football Landscape.
Georgia isn’t automatically elite just because of rings in 2021 and 2022. They aren’t automatically elite as long as Smart is coach, he is starting to lose.
Although optimism still reigned in a losing locker room, do they deserve optimism with this result?
What did this loss mean for the program? Was it a hit to the ego?
Bugs In The System
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Just into the change of the calendar from 2024 to 2025, the first 12-team College Football Playoff has completed the first two rounds of the bracket.
Not that it surprises many folks, but the playoff format is already drawing grumblings from college football coaches, media, and fans alike.
Now that we’ve seen the first round, on-campus sites, and the quarterfinals round in four of the New Years Six Games, what have we learned and where should this go in the future?
To find out what we’ve learned, we must look back and see how we got here. The birth of the College Football Playoff began for the 2014 season and was formed as a four-team playoff for the National Championship until this season (2024) when the expansion to 12-teams took effect.
The expansion talks have been just that since the inception of the CFP but took some weight when an internal working group of ADs, Commissioners and former coaches/players was put into place in June of 2021.
That group was tasked with exploring what a format of an expanded playoff would look like in the future.
Fast forward a year and a half to December of 2022, the CFP Board of Managers unanimously agrees to implement the 12-team playoff beginning in the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The part that severely went unnoticed in the expediency of the format change is that the working group was given a target date of beginning the format in the 2025 season.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, who was in that working group, has publicly said that when the start date was moved up a full year, they knew there were going to be some bugs that needed to be worked out.
So, what are those bugs that have reared their ugly head so far through eight games in the CFP?
Going into the first round, outside of fans in Tuscaloosa and an SEC Head Coach that calls Oxford, Mississippi home, the majority of fans and media do not have many bones to pick with the 12-teams that are in the playoff, but questions have been raised about the selection process after the opening round.
Getting through the first round of on-campus hosted games felt like a chore with only one game ending within ten points. No matter the format, no matter the number of teams, and even with a flawless system there are always going to be conversations of “snubs” or “non-deserving” teams, so that’s not the elephant in the room.
The biggest issue we have with the current 12-team format is the seeding.
One of the cornerstones of this format was the emphasis on Conference Champions that would have the five highest rated conference champions in the final CFP rankings would automatically earn a spot in the field, and the four highest would earn a top four seed.
This year that plays out as the Big 10 Champion Oregon receiving the #1 seed, SEC Champion Georgia earning the #2 Seed, the Mountain West Champ Boise State as the #3 seed as the group of five representative, and Big 12 Winner Arizona State rounding out the group with first round byes as the #4 seed. The ACC champion Clemson was the 5th highest ranked conference champ and rounded out the field as the #12 seed.
The big rub has been the seeding of the conference champions with Boise State and Arizona State, while being deserving of being in the field due to winning their conference, a first round bye (which turns out didn’t fair so well for any of the four that earned it this year) shouldn’t have been in the cards for the Broncos or Sun Devils.
Discussions have already started at the top (SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey seems to always have that kind of pull) in order to not only change the seeding but also begin developing a system to re-seed after each round.
I suspect that even possibly as early as next year, we see the five highest ranked conference champions receive a slot in the 12-team playoff but are not guaranteed a top 4 seed and first round bye.
After this first cycle of the playoff that runs with the contract that runs out after the 2025 season playoffs, do not be surprised to see re-seeding come into play after each round similar to the NFL playoffs. This would put the highest remaining seed after each round facing the lowest remaining seed and so on.
At the end of the day, this process was rushed to get it online and while it is turned into a couple enticing games and fantastic environments for the first ever on-campus playoff games, there are still changes to be made to get it where it needs to be.
My biggest concern in the process is the impatience of folks forcing the hand to expand to 16 or beyond before the kinks are fully worked out with the 12-team format. Only time will tell.
Atlanta Buzz
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The football season is over for Georgia Tech. For the second year in a row the Yellow Jackets finished 7-6. They lost the Birmingham Bowl last week to Vanderbilt, 35-27. The game was not as close as the score indicates.
They had seven players enter the transfer portal prior to the bowl game. That included their leading receiver, Eric Singleton Jr. and backup quarterback Zach Pyron.
“I think we made a tremendous amount of improvement throughout the course of the year. Excited where this team will continue to go,” Key said Friday after in the Birmingham Bowl at Protective Stadium. “You learn lessons through every experience in your life. A football team learns and grows through experiences.”
“Where this team is today compared to where this team was a year ago, I’m extremely proud of where they are, and I’m extremely excited about where we’re going moving forward.”
The record is the same as last year but I do agree, Tech has improved. In order to get to the next level they have to capitalize on opportunities and win big games. They had a 27-13 lead against #7 Georgia with less than 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. They lost that game 44-42 in the eighth overtime. That was their seventh consecutive loss to UGA.
They did beat #4 Miami 28-23 at home in November so that was a good win.
Midway through October Tech was 5-2. They beat North Carolina but starting quarterback Haynes King was injured and he missed the next two games. They lost those games to #12 Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. Key called a team meeting after the Va. Tech game, which was October 26.
“We knew we needed at that point in a time, a strong voice in front of ‘em. Something had to be said. They had some adversity hit, they had some adversity hit for two weeks in a row,” Key said Thursday in Birmingham. “Really from that point forward you’ve seen a driven team. You’ve seen a team that’s playing for each other, a team that’s playing together, a team that truly buys into the no-scoreboard, play-the-next-play, faceless-opponent (mentality). Because they could have gone one of two ways that night, they really could have.”
We can begin to look to the 2025 season and they have added some players in the transfer portal. They currently have the No. 31 overall portal class in the country and No. 5 class in the conference.
That looks good on paper but we did see how that worked out for Florida State this season. Out of those fifteen players I will highlight some of them. They are adding WR Debron Gatling (South Carolina), OL Andrew Rosinski (North Carolina), TE J.T. Byrne (Cal), TE Harry Lodge (Wake Forest), DT Matthew Alexander (UCF) and LB Melvin Jordan (Oregon State).
The UCF transfer Matthew Alexander (6’3, 295 lbs) played in 39 games over the last three seasons for the Knights. He had 34 tackles in 2024. I think he might have the biggest impact in this portal class.
They will start the 2025 season August 30 at Colorado. The Buffaloes were 9-4 this season but they will lose Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
They play two games in September, both at home against Gardner-Webb and Temple.
These are games they can win but we will see how that plays out.
Gunner?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
How well Gunner Stockton will perform is still unclear.
As the world finds out about him off the field, Stockton’s a Georgia folk hero, his bona fide attributes are being filled in: his small-town roots, how he got his name, the fact he drives a 1984 Ford pickup. Stockton keeps four or five cows back home in Rabun County, which has become a running joke with some of his Georgia teammates.
There is no known correlation between bovine ownership and quarterback ability, and in less than a week, Georgia faces off against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
Here are a few football-centric takeaways from Saturday, the day before Georgia leaves for New Orleans. After offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and four of his players met with members of the media.
Georgia guard Tate Ratledge forgot something at the team facility one night this week, and when he went back to get it at 10 p.m., he saw Stockton still there, watching film.
That wasn’t that unusual, according to Delp, who said Stockton watched film for four to five hours after practices in the regular season, not knowing if he would even play as the No. 2 quarterback.
Bobo said he could tell Stockton “took to heart” that he needed to prepare each week like a starter. That helped him seamlessly replace Carson Beck in the second half of the SEC Championship Game by leading a touchdown drive right away.
Stockton possessed a game plan focused on Beck’s pocket-passing skills and integrated into UGA’s high-performing offense seamlessly.
The extra time to adjust and prepare should be a big help for the offense. Before Georgia knew they would play Notre Dame, Georgia’s “back to basics” approach during the first week of practice kept Stockton in more situational drills: two-minute, third-down and red zone.
It helped Stockton lead the offense, rather than serving as the understudy or scout-team veteran.
“Now I can tell he has full control of this huddle,” Ratledge said.
That said, the spark was already there when Stockton came in during the SEC Championship Game. The past few weeks of practice seemed to have cemented it.
“Just seeing the way he’s carried himself and done everything the right way in his prior years leading up to this moment, Gunner’s just a guy you want to block for,” Ratledge said.
“He’s just a great guy, plays with a lot of emotion, brings everybody with him, and now he has the whole team behind him, ready to roll.”
The offense hasn’t had a sterling year: Georgia ranks 30th in scoring and 42nd in yards per play. But four of its games have been against defenses ranked in the top 10 nationally, with two others in the top 20.
This is Bobo’s second year back as the coordinator. When he met the media this time in 2023, it was after a better statistical year, but the team didn’t have a chance at a championship. This time, Bobo still has a chance to set the narrative.
Georgia has two new tailback injuries: Roderick Robinson and Branson Robinson are both expected to miss the rest of the Playoff with unspecified injuries sustained during practice.
That ends injury-riddled seasons for both players and removes the team’s most physical runners.
It hasn’t been a great rushing season anyway, as Bobo acknowledged. Georgia is only 11th in the SEC in rushing yards per attempt and 15th in total rushing yards per game.
Georgia was in the top three the previous three seasons and was once known as Tailback U., including during Bobo’s first stint as offensive coordinator.
The offensive line is pretty much in full health now. Etienne is, too, and with Nate Frazier, Georgia has two dynamic options out of the backfield, while Cash Jones is a veteran blocker and pass catcher. With Stockton at quarterback, a better running game is needed against Notre Dame.
Play Defense and run the ball are keys to Georgia’s victory.
Georgia 23 Notre Dame 13.
Strike The Pose
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
After winning the Heisman Trophy, Colorado’s Travis Hunter hugged his fiancée and then his mom.
When he got to Buffaloes’ coach Deion Sanders, the hug lasted a little longer.
He even went back in for another, putting his head on Sanders’ shoulder, and you could hear Hunter getting choked up.
Hunter thanked Coach Prime for changing his life, but the same can be said the other way around. Hunter is Sanders’ proof of concept.
Travis Hunter’s rise to stardom, fulfilling the promise of his five-star potential while playing full-time on both offense and defense, is Sanders’ most significant accomplishment as a college football coach. Hunter is the example Sanders can hold up to every other blue-chip recruit in the country.
More importantly, Hunter’s spectacular season should serve as an example to all those blue-chippers pondering where to go to school: Those coaches need you more than you need them. Don’t be afraid to chart your own path.
“I wanted to be different,” said Hunter, who also won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best receiver and the Bednarik Award as the best defender. “So, you know me, being different makes me feel more comfortable than doing the norm.”
Coaches sell players on their ability to get guys to the NFL all the time. The numbers suggest the Alabamas, Georgias and Ohio States are better than most at developing NFL players.
The reality, though, is what really sets those programs apart is their ability to recruit more players with NFL potential.
Hunter, a Florida native, could have gone to any school in the country after playing high school ball in Georgia.
He was committed to Florida State, but at the last moment flipped to Jackson State, a historically Black university in the FCS.
It was truly a road not taken. In the modern era of recruiting rankings, where the best of the best are identified and sorted earlier and better than ever, no player with Hunter’s pedigree had ever chosen to play in Division I’s second tier instead of the top.
For Sanders, it was the ultimate recruiting coup, swiping Hunter from his old school in Tallahassee.
Sanders sold something bigger than just getting Hunter to the league. During ESPN’s Heisman show, Sanders said he encouraged Hunter to be “unapologetically” himself.
Hunter’s mom, Ferrante Edmonds, called her son Travis a little goofy. He wears onesies. He said he never really listened to music until his fiancé opened his ears to Lil Wayne (who showed up on Saturday to congratulate Hunter).
Hunter’s favorite thing besides football is fishing. He said he spent his Friday night in New York watching fishing videos to chill out.
How many coaches would have given Hunter the opportunity to play both ways to the extent of Sanders, who probably could have done the same when he played for Bobby Bowden at Florida State, did with Hunter?
Hunter, along with Sanders’ son and star quarterback, Shedeur, will play their last games for No. 23 Colorado on Dec. 28 in the Alamo Bowl against No. 17 BYU.
Sanders has been adamant about his intent to remain Colorado’s head coach when his sons (he includes Hunter with Shedeur and defensive back Shilo) move on.
Hunter is unicorn of a football player, the legacy he leaves behind hopefully encourages more players to take the road less traveled.
Flying To Bowl
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
While 2024 didn’t end in a Sun Belt Conference crown like the Eagles were still fighting for just a few short weeks ago, Georgia Southern finished the 2024 regular season 8-4 and have been invited to the Big Easy for the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in the Caesars Superdome on December 19th to face the C-USA’s Sam Houston State Bearkats who will make their first FBS Bowl appearance in their second season at the FBS level.
Georgia Southern will appear in their 7th appearance in a postseason bowl game since moving up to the FBS in the 2014 season.
Because of the NCAA rules on transitioning teams, Georgia Southern couldn’t participate in a bowl in 2014, but set the standard straight in the first-year bowl eligible with a dominating win over Bowling Green in the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile to the tune of 57-27.
The Eagles are 3-3 in the previous bowl matchups and have come up short in the last two meetings (Last year falling 41-21 to Ohio in the Myrtle Beach Bowl and 2022 to Buffalo in the Camellia Bowl 23-21). The last triumph in the post season for the Blue and White came…in the same bowl game they’re heading to this season.
The 2020 season was capped off with a convincing 38-3 victory over Louisiana Tech in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
Shai Werts was named MVP for his efforts in the Big Easy running for three touchdowns while the Eagle defense amassed four interceptions of the Bulldogs to capture the New Orleans Bowl title under then Head Coach Chad Lunsford.
Since that 2020 NOLA Bowl, the landscape of college football has changed drastically and now the biggest question going into any bowl game outside of the College Football Playoff is… Who is actually playing in the game?
Because of the Transfer Portal window opening a week before Bowl Season officially starts (this year it opened Monday the 9th), most teams are being gutted with players entering the transfer portal and opting out of the game.
Luckily for Georgia Southern, the Eagles have been one of the least affected teams in the country by the portal to this point with only three players entering the portal. Wideout DeAndre Buchannon, defensive back Deontre Morris, along with quarterback Dexter Williams II (who decided to fore-go the last few games of the season to enter the portal) are the only casualties Georgia Southern has seen decide to elect for free agency…. I mean the portal.
On the flip side, Sam Houston State has been slapped across the face by the portal. Eighteen Bearkats have decided to look for greener pastures in the portal including virtually the entire running back room with the only four running backs with a carry on the season entering their name into the transfer jar including DJ McKinney who was named C-USA Freshman of the Year.
The Bearkats also have seen eleven players that have played a factor (not all starters) on defense this year have also joined the list. With all of that said, the decision hasn’t been made yet of how many of them still play in the Bowl game despite being in the portal. Each team decides how to handle that scenario where some coaches will, and some won’t allow someone in the portal to still play for that school. Indications are that at least some (again no idea how many) will suit up against the Blue and White.
In addition to all of the portal departures, Sam Houston State is battling through also losing their head coach, K.C. Keeler who was hired as the next head coach at Temple on December 1st. Keeler had spearheaded Sam Houston in their transition from the FCS to FBS and after eleven years in Huntsville, Keeler hands the reigns off to Interim Head Coach Brad Cornelsen who was the Offensive Coordinator for Keeler the past two years.
So, while stability is the name of the game for Georgia Southern in the meantime, there are a lot of unanswered questions on the scouting report for the Bearkats. We have seen magical moments in the Bowl Season for Georgia Southern many times and can’t wait to see what this one turns out to be in the Big Easy for Big Blue!
Gator Bait
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
A year after they failed to achieve bowl eligibility, The Florida Gators (7-5; 4-4 SEC) secured its return to postseason play with a spot in the Gasparilla Bowl on December 20, where it will face Tulane (9-4; 7-1 AAC).
It marks the Gators’ second bowl appearance in three years under head coach Billy Napier and their 22nd since the New Millenium (That’s the year 2000 for our younger readers).
Florida is 11-10 in postseason games since the turn of the century, excluding SEC championship games.
“We just have access to the players a lot more than we used to in the old days,” Napier said of securing a bowl berth. “All spring, all summer you can be on the field. It’s a little bit more of a reward for the players. It’s another opportunity to create momentum for the program. A lot of our redshirt players that will be able to play in the game which will be big.”
The Gators enjoyed their best season of the Napier era in 2024, winning seven total games and four against SEC foes, both program highs under his current leadership.
Florida’s success was the byproduct of an impressive run to end the regular season, five wins in their final eight games and each of their last three, including back-to-back wins over then-No. 21 LSU and then-No. 9 Ole Miss.
This was the first time the Gators had recorded multiple ranked wins in the same season under Napier’s watch.
Napier and his players said their bye week in late September was the catalyst for their marked improvement.
“I walked off that field and said, ‘That’s the best practice I’ve been associated with in 20 years of college football,'” Napier said. “So, at that point, I’m like, ‘We’ve got to figure this out.'”
He added that the Gators’ Oct. 12 loss to Tennessee also provided a motivational boost.
“I think Tennessee was a turning point,” Napier said. “I think in that locker room after the game, that was when it was like, okay, we can do this, and I think obviously Kentucky, another open date, what we experienced in Jacksonville. I just think hope is powerful, man. Just proud of these guys, man.”
While Florida’s 2024 campaign was ultimately successful enough to buy Napier a fourth season at the helm, things looked quite bleak for it at the outset.
The Gators suffered their worst home-opening defeat in program history when they lost 41-17 to Miami on Aug. 31 and endured a second blowout loss two weeks later at The Swamp against Texas A&M.
Looking back, Napier said those matchups bettered his team, too.
“Sometimes you’ve got to go through stuff,” he said. “They’re different because they went through that. They don’t really care what anybody thinks. They care what the people around them think. They care about doing their job and being accountable and being responsible to the people around them. I think what they’ve been through has forced them to do that, and I can say the same thing.”
The Gators could keep their hot streak alive in their bowl game with many of their key contributors likely to participate, including freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, junior center Jake Slaughter, freshman running back Jaden Baugh, junior edge rusher Tyreak Sapp and sophomore defensive back Bryce Thornton.
Florida is looking for its eighth win of its season for the first time since 2020. Did anyone predict this ending 5-6 weeks ago?
Playoff Predictor
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia Bulldogs are heading into the College Football Playoff with a lot of momentum after taking down Texas in the SEC Championship.
What a game that was, a 22-19 overtime thriller that saw quarterback Carson Beck leave the contest with an injured elbow, only to return on the final, game-winning play.
The Dawgs have now landed the No. 2 seed in the 12-team CFP bracket, right behind No. 1 Oregon.
While being the top seed is usually the goal, this time, being No. 2 might actually work out better for the mean machine in red and black.
The Bulldogs have a first-round bye and will kick off their playoff run in the quarterfinals at the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Their first opponent will be the winner of a matchup between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 10 Indiana.
Neither team has proven much this season. Indiana only faced one tough opponent, Ohio State, and lost 38-15.
Notre Dame’s best win was a road victory over Texas A&M back in Week 1, but they also suffered an embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois at home.
For Georgia fans, even with the uncertainty surrounding Carson Beck, this setup is about as good as it gets.
If Georgia makes it past the quarterfinals, they’ll face either No. 3 Boise State, No. 6 Penn State, or No. 11 SMU in the semifinals.
While these teams have had strong seasons, none of them should really scare the Bulldogs.
Georgia’s depth, experience, and talent give them the upper hand in these matchups, setting them up well for a spot in the title game.
The real challenge for Georgia is waiting on the other side of the bracket. That’s where teams like Oregon, Texas, Ohio State, Tennessee, Arizona State, and Clemson are battling it out.
Oregon is the toughest opponent in the field, and Georgia would be underdogs against them.
Matchups with Texas or Ohio State would be close, but the Bulldogs are favored against Tennessee, Arizona State, and Clemson.
Looking at the odds, Georgia has a 75.5% chance to beat Clemson, 66.9% against Arizona State, and 63.6% against Tennessee.
Games against Texas and Ohio State are more of a coin flip, with Georgia’s chances sitting at 50.4% and 49.6%, respectively.
Oregon is the toughest draw, with Georgia having just a 45.7% chance to win.
The good news? Georgia won’t have to face those tougher teams until the championship game, giving them a smoother path than most.
The wildcard in any of these playoff scenarios is the health of Carson Beck. The quarterback is currently dealing with an injury to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow, which is his throwing arm. Georgia released a statement on Monday confirming the injury and shared that Beck and his family are exploring treatment options. At this time, there’s no clear timeline for his return.
If Beck is unable to play, Georgia is likely to rely on sophomore Gunner Stockton.
Stockton, a former four-star prospect out of Rabun County High School, stepped in during the SEC Championship game, completing 12 of 16 passes for 71 yards.
While he threw an interception that contributed to Texas tying the game, Stockton also delivered key moments, particularly with his mobility. In overtime, his 8-yard run helped set up Georgia’s game-winning touchdown.
After the win over Texas, teammates expressed confidence in Stockton’s ability to manage the offense. Georgia appears ready to adapt as they move forward in the postseason.
While no playoff game is ever a guaranteed win, Georgia’s bracket setup gives them a solid shot at making it back to the National Championship.
With Kirby Smart at the helm and a favorable draw, the Bulldogs have every reason to feel good about their chances to bring another title home to Athens. It’s going to be an exciting ride, but Georgia fans have plenty to be confident about as the playoff kicks off!
The Bulldogs will play next in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 1st in New Orleans. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:45pm EST.
Birmingham Bowl
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2024 college football regular season is over.
Now we move to bowl season.
Georgia Tech (7-5) will play Vanderbilt (6-6) in the Birmingham Bowl on December 27th.
Tech head coach Brent Key is from Birmingham and played high school football 20 minutes from Protective Stadium, the site of the bowl game.
“Birmingham’s had a bowl game for as long as I can remember. Probably one of the first football games I ever went to was, ironically enough, the 1985 All-American Bowl (a 17-14 Tech win over Michigan State),” Key said. “Goodness gracious, never would have thought full circle coming back.”
“Birmingham’s a city of grit and toughness. There’s a lot of things about the city of Birmingham that are right in the same parallels as our football team. I know family will be excited; friends will be excited. It’s pretty neat.”
Key went to Tech in 1996 to play football for the Yellow Jackets. He took over the program four games into the 2022 campaign and was named the full-time coach of the Jackets in November of that year.
He’s gone 14-11 in his first two full seasons and he received a five-year contract extension and a raise recently.
“It’s exciting. I think it just shows the leadership here,” Key said of his new deal. “It shows from (Tech) president (Angel) Cabrera to (athletic director) J Batt and then to the coaches, the alignment that takes place here. It also shows the commitment to the future of Georgia Tech athletics. Couldn’t be more excited. Doesn’t change anything about our day-to-day, but very, very appreciative of those people.”
Georgia Tech beat #10 Florida State and #4 Miami this season. They lost to #6 Georgia 44-42 in an eight-overtime thriller. The Jackets lead 27-13 with 3:39 left in the game before UGA came back and tied the game.
Tech’s top receiver Eric Singleton Jr. entered the transfer portal the first day it opened, December 9th.
The sophomore receiver had 56 receptions for 754 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s also a member of the Tech track and field team and he’s the fastest player on the football team.
Tech has had three receivers enter the portal in Singleton, Christian Leary and Leo Blackburn, from Westlake High.
Defensive lineman Horace Lockett (also a former Westlake High standout), quarterback Zach Pyron, running back Evan Dickens and offensive linemen Corey Robinson (from Roswell High) and Jordan Brown previously announced their intentions to leave Tech.
The Commodores beat #1 Alabama earlier this season. This is their first bowl game since 2018.
Vandy is led by their transfer QB Diego Pavia. He has 2,133 passing yards, 17 TD’s and 4 interceptions. He is the team’s leading rusher with 716 yards and 4 scores. He only completes 59.2% of his passes.
Yellow Jacket senior quarterback Haynes King played in 10 games this season. He threw for 1,910 yards, 11 scores, 1 pick and completed 72.5% of his passes. He also rushed for 578 yards and 11 touchdowns.
I think Vanderbilt will win this game. Georgia Tech is the better team but I think they lost too many talented players to the transfer portal before the bowl game.
