By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The college football season is officially over which is a bittersweet moment. The national championship game started slowly but got better in the second half. #3 Georgia (13-2) was on a quest for their first national championship since 1980.

They dominated in the first half but they had to settle for field goals early on to take a 6-0 lead. Mecole Hardman scored a 1-yard touchdown right before halftime to give the Dawgs a 13-0 lead.

On the opposite side #4 Alabama (13-1) struggled on offense in the first half. Quarterback Jalen Hurts is 25-2 as a starter and led the Crimson Tide to their second consecutive national championship game.

He struggled again, only completing 3 of 8 passing attempts for 21 yards. He did a good job running, gaining 47 yards on 6 carries.

Nick Saban made a bold move by benching Hurts at halftime in favor of true freshman QB Tua Tagovailoa. He led Bama to the end zone with a 6-yard TD pass to Henry Ruggs III to cut the deficit to six points.

The Bulldogs answered that score with a big play from their true freshman quarterback. Jake Fromm threw an 80-yard touchdown to Hardman to extend the lead to 20-7. Fromm played pretty well, throwing for 232 yards, 1 TD and 2 interceptions with a 50% completion rate.

The Crimson Tide would go on to tie the game 20-20 with 3:49 remaining in the 4^th quarter after Tagovailoa tossed another touchdown to Calvin Ridley. They had a chance to win the game in regulation.

Kicker Andy Pappanastos missed a field goal in the first half, which foreshadowed what he would do later in the game. He missed another field goal as time expired in regulation.

UGA received the ball first in overtime and scored a field goal to take a 23-20 lead. At that point I thought Alabama was in trouble because they could not trust their kicker.

Tagovailoa took a horrible sack on Alabama’s first play in overtime, losing 16 yards. On the next play he threw a 41-yard TD pass to freshman DeVonta Smith to win the game.

“I could not believe it,” Saban said. “There’s lots of highs and lows. Last year we lost on the last play of the game and this year we won on the last play of the game. These kids really responded the right way. We said last year, `Don’t waste the feeling.’ They sure didn’t, the way they played tonight.”

Tagovailoa finished with 166 yards, 3 touchdowns and one pick with a 58% completion rate.

The win is Alabama’s fifth national title in nine years. Saban now has six major poll national championships, which includes one at LSU. That matches the record set by another legendary Crimson Tide coach, Bear Bryant.

This was an interesting year for Alabama. They lost the championship last season on the last play of the game. They reeled off 11 wins to begin this season before losing to archrival Auburn to finish the season.

There was some controversy when they were selected to the College Football Playoff because they did not win their conference. Some people felt that Ohio State was more deserving since they won the Big Ten, even though they had 2 losses. It looks like the decision to pick the Tide was justified.