Nolan Smith comments on 2022 Georgia preseason projections
Several doubted the Georgia Bulldogs’ ability to repeat as national champions after they initially beat Alabama in the second-to-last title game, but it’s clear that Georgia never doubted itself in the process.
And that’s what ultimately mattered and showed for itself in a big way as the Bulldogs downed the TCU Horned Frogs, 65-7 on Monday to now have won 2 consecutive national title games. Some are calling it the dawn of a new era as Georgia could be college football’s next dynasty team — something that becomes even easier to fathom when one thinks about how simply not itself Alabama has been as of late.
So much for those projections that Georgia would go 7-5 this past season, and outside linebacker Nolan Smith isn’t letting anyone live it down, either.
“They thought we were gonna go 7-5, we end up perfect,” he said in a postgame interview. “I can talk trash now cause I’m done. I’m a Dawg for life and I will always be a Dawg.”
"They thought we were gonna go 7-5, we end up perfect. I can talk trash now cause I'm done. I'm a #Dawg for life and I will always be a Dawg."
A DGD indeed. Nolan Smith, what a joy to cover you. #CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/wjmeV5hxIO— Maria Martin (@Ria_Martin) January 10, 2023
No one predicted that a team with a championship coaching staff and a dozen guys who will be taken in 2022 draft (presuming that guys like Kendall Milton, Dom Blaylock and Sed Van Pran enter it instead of returning to improve their stock) would lose 5 games. At most people predicted that they might lose 2 games between Tennessee, Kentucky and the rematch(es) against Alabama that everyone expected but we never got thanks to Bill O’Brien choosing to call plays as if Alabama had the 2020 personnel instead of the 2012 personnel that they actually did have. I wish they would drop this inferiority complex. It is almost as if they think that they deserve credit for actually beating Alabama in 2017 and 2018 or something. Never mind that Alabama wasn’t even the best team in 2018 (Clemson was, by a mile, and they would have crushed UGA) and that UGA should stop pretending as if their bad 2019 and even worse 2020 didn’t happen. Or as if even this year, UGA was a combination of a vicious hit (and sketchy no call) by Bullard on Marvin Harrison (a guy they couldn’t cover), bad play-calling by Ryan Day on that final drive AND a kicker with a case of nerves from disaster. And then there was the Missouri game …
Oh stop hating. They won the natty, we’ve all seen it. Just say congrats.
Cry more, Gump.
Harrison was targeted 3 times after the 10 minute mark of the second quarter. Georgia took a 3 point lead after being down 14 in the second quarter with Harrison on the field. After scoring 28 in the first half, OSU only scored 10 points in the 3rd, a quarter they largely had Harrison for and where UGA’s offense was imploding.
The Harrison angle is lazy. Georgia won the Peach bowl because OSU could not maintain a consistent rushing game and it made them one dimensional. Georgia controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides. No play epitomized the pressure Stroud was under the entire night than the play Harrison got hurt on. If you don’t think they dominated along the line of scrimmage, how do you square 4 sacks, one against All-American and previously perfect Paris Johnson by a true Freshmen?
Go rewatch the game knowing the outcome and you’ll have a different understanding of how the game played out. Stroud almost pulled a Cam Newton, but in the end, that was all OSU had was a game for the ages by their QB. The rest of the team was pedestrian.
Love Nolan so much. Hate it for him that he couldn’t finish it out on the field, but it speaks so much to his character that he stuck around to help the team any way he could instead of starting his draft prep early, like some other players have done this year after injury.
Looking at you, Tosu WR.
I mean, staying with the team is preparing for the draft.