By Chris Marler
After a season full of chaos, upsets, and downright weirdness, college football’s most familiar finale is back: Georgia and Alabama in Atlanta, ready to settle things again with a little drama, a little history and maybe even a little booze mixed in.
SEC Championship Game
Run from it all you want, but destiny waits for no one. And, in this case, despite one of the weirdest, wildest and wide open SEC football seasons in over a decade, Georgia and Alabama will once again meet in the SEC Championship game.
It will be the eighth time in nine years Kirby Smart has led his team to Atlanta for a chance at the conference title. It will be the fifth time in eight years Alabama and Georgia will square off in Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the fourth for an SEC title.
It’s a familiar matchup, but it’s also a very familiar setting. These two have met here for the national title in 2018 for the famed 2nd & 26. They met in the same building later that December for the Jalen Hurts comeback. They met there again in 2021 when Bryce Young’s Heisman moment came against what some thought was the greatest defense of all time. Then in 2023, it was Jalen Milroe’s surprising heroics that led Nick Saban to his last SEC Title.
Alabama has held a real spell over Georgia and Kirby Smart, winning 10 of the last 11 matchups. And yet, as I’ve said so many times over the past five to seven years… this feels like the year the streak finally ends.
It’s hard to beat a team twice in the same season. It’s happened before, but it’s difficult to do in this game. Georgia did it last year against Texas. Alabama did it to Florida in 1999, Auburn did it to Tennessee in 2004 and Auburn did it to South Carolina in 2010. Georgia will try to channel the 2001 LSU Tigers who lost to Tennessee in the regular season by one score, but won in Atlanta to ruin their playoff hopes.
As far as this game goes, Alabama still can’t run the ball. That’s a problem that’s plagued them all year. They will most likely be without their starting RB Jam Miller who was huge in this game two years ago against Georgia. Georgia averaged nearly seven yards per carry on the ground when these two met earlier this year.
During that matchup, Georgia was stopped on fourth and one on a stretch play near the goal line instead of kicking a field goal to tie it up. The play would’ve gone for a touchdown if it weren’t for defensive lineman LT Overton. As luck would have it, Overton is also out for this game.
It’s hard to beat a team twice, especially a Kirby Smart team. Alabama learned that firsthand back in 2021 in the national title game when a banged up team missing five starters got absolutely smoked in the fourth quarter against a superior Georgia team. The injuries may not be why Alabama lost, but it definitely didn’t help. And, facing a hungry Kirby Smart team that always has a chip on its shoulder when you’re not at full strength will be very difficult for Alabama.
The Winning
Georgia 28, Alabama 20
The Boozing
Crown Royal Old Fashioned. And, make it peach.
This is simple, so don’t overthink it. The winner of this game will be crowned the SEC Championship, and despite what some people think about dynasties being dead or Kirby Smart slipping in the NIL era, the winner of this game almost always means a trophy or crown is involved. Make it peach since this game will be played in the peach state, and make sure you add an extra dash of bitters because these two do not like each other. Not even a little bit.
Bonus points if you order it at Houston’s on Peachtree or at the Omni Hotel, where I used to bartend as a second job before I was lucky enough to do this full-time. Cheers, y’all!
The Big 12 Championship Game
The entire college football world is pulling for BYU this weekend in their rematch against Texas Tech. BYU has an incredible resumé, and should be ahead of Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff rankings.
The concern is this is a BYU team that got absolutely dismantled by Texas Tech in their first meeting a month ago. This one is at a neutral site, but the fact that sports books once again have BYU as a 13.5 point underdog says a lot.
The Winning
Texas Tech 33, BYU 17
The Boozing
A Diet Strawberry Vanilla Dr. Pepper in a 64 ounce Stanley cup.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from the Secret Lives of Mormon Housewives, it’s that rich people in the American Southwest who aren’t allowed to drink alcohol love them some sugary diet drinks. I can only assume the same is the case for rich people in Lubbock living off oil money and NIL “investments.”.
I’m not sure what people in Lubbock drink. I do know BYU fans aren’t allowed to have fun. Here’s to hoping they soak up the experience either way. Pun intended.
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