College GameDay analysts offer early preview of TCU-Georgia national title game
A week out from the national championship Game, ESPN’s College GameDay crew broke down the matchup between TCU and Georgia.
Host Rece Davis said he thinks that the Bulldogs will have a challenge with TCU’s offense, which dropped 51 on Michigan on Saturday.
“Georgia’s defense is going to have its hands full,” Davis said. “You’ve got receivers that are in the elite realm, maybe not quite Marvin Harrison, but Quentin Johnston’s right there.”
Kirk Herbstreit also thinks TCU’s offense can give Georgia problems, citing its ability to create huge plays that swing momentum.
“This team is one of the best at creating explosive, which is always big in these championship-type games,” Herbstreit said. “Georgia’s defense is vulnerable on the back end. It better be ready to defend that.”
David Pollack talked about the way Georgia struggled to defend CJ Stroud on the ground, and believes the Bulldogs will have to do better against Max Duggan, who is known for creating plays on the ground.
“Max Duggan, that’s what he does best,” Pollack said. “He knows how to buy time, he knows how to scramble.”
Desmond Howard countered Pollack’s point, saying the Bulldogs will be ready for Duggan next week and that Stroud caught them by surprise.
“If they’re not ready for Duggan, that’s just poor preparation,” Howard said. “I was shocked to see that from CJ Stroud, but it was great to see… They’ll be ready for Max Duggan.”
Desmond is wrong. There is no way Stroud caught UGA by surprise. He’s a Heisman finalist and plays for one of the most televised teams in the country. A lot of Stroud’s success in that UGA game is due to his skills. But I’m not sure Duggan has a skill set on the same level as Stroud.
But the fact is that Stroud did not run much at Ohio State. He was generally a pure pocket passer and his running in the game surprised everyone. But the Dawgs know Duggan is a runner and will be ready. That kid’s a gritty Quarterback.
Won’t argue with you. Honestly saw 2 games decided today by last play of the game rugby plays. Its been a stellar bowl season.
I completely agree. I was at MBS when we lost to y’all in the SEC Championship when Tua got hurt. Seeing Stroud start scrambling for big yardage brought back nightmares of Jalen Hurts slicing through our defense en route to a comeback. In that game and the Peach Bowl, we never seemed to make adjustments to account for the QB’s mobility. I’m much less concerned about our ability to game plan for a dual threat QB like Duggan, regardless of his talent, than I am our ability to adjust on the fly to a runner. We weren’t expecting that side of Stroud to come out and it showed.
With all due respect to TCU, their offense did not hang 51 on Michigan.
Their defense scored 14 of those points. So, the offense scored 37.
Michigan should have scored 60
3 trips inside the 5 on 1st and goal and got 3 total points.
Kirby knew what was coming. Don’t take away from OSU’s performance by saying Georgia was not prepared. OSU came to play and have a lot of talent. Stroud is an impressive QB and showed a lot of class after the game.
Two things can be true at once. Georgia could not have been prepared, and OSU had a wonderful performance.
Because prepared or not, Ohio St still had to execute, and they did.
I think the fact that TCU has a receiver just a couple steps behind Marvin Harrison Jr but not really a second receiver at the level of Egbuka means that Georgia can bracket over the top and spy Duggan underneath. I’m not saying UGA is gonna run away with it by any means (this is CFB where the game hinges on the motivation, attention span, and egos of college students) but I’m more confident in our chances at the start than I was against OSU.