CNN —
The assemblage football play arrives astatine its climax connected Monday arsenic the heralded Georgia Bulldogs effort to support their rubric against the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University (TCU).
For galore of the players, it volition beryllium their last changeable astatine collegiate glory earlier embarking connected their nonrecreational careers.
Georgia heads to the SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, unbeaten truthful acold this play and with past successful its sights arsenic the defending champions.
No squad has won consecutive nationalist titles since Alabama successful 2011 and 2012, and nary since the advent of the reformatted College Football Playoffs successful 2014.
TCU, meanwhile, entered the play extracurricular the apical 25 programs successful the state and with a rookie manager successful Sonny Dykes – nary manager of specified inexperience has ever reached a College Football Playoff Championship game, fto unsocial won.
Describing their play arsenic an underdog communicative would beryllium an understatement, with the improbable 51-45 triumph implicit antecedently unbeaten Michigan successful the Fiesta Bowl past play the latest successful a drawstring of singular results.
Both teams’ quarterbacks volition beryllium looking to summation their banal up of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Georgia’s Stetson Bennett is already 25 years old, but it would beryllium hard for teams to disregard a back-to-back nationalist title signal-caller, adjacent if helium were to beryllium picked successful aboriginal rounds.
Bennett’s calling paper is his capableness to stay calm precocious successful games, demonstrated by his poise successful past week’s comeback triumph implicit Ohio State. His 3rd touchdown walk of the game, with conscionable 54 seconds remaining, made the Bulldogs the archetypal squad to travel backmost from a 14-point fourth-quarter shortage successful College Football Playoff history, according to the NCAA.
The Horned Frogs’ Max Duggan finished 2nd successful Heisman Trophy voting for his cardinal relation successful this Cinderella communicative of a play – but is besides apt to find himself drafted successful aboriginal rounds arsenic opposed to astatine the apical of the board.
Outside of the backmost position, Bulldogs’ cornerback Kelee Ringo has impressed each season, arsenic has near tackle Broderick Jones.
Georgia fans volition person fond memories of Ringo successful Championship games, fixed it was his pick-six which iced the crippled against Alabama successful 2022.
Player wellness volition nary uncertainty beryllium successful the spotlight aft 1 of the darkest weeks successful NFL and shot past with the on-field illness of Buffalo Bills’ information Damar Hamlin, which sent shockwaves astir the athletics and beyond.
With respective of those progressive successful the crippled either heading to the nonrecreational league oregon with aspirations to bash so, the events of past Monday service arsenic a stark reminder of the players’ mortality up of a lucifer which is often described arsenic a changeable astatine permanence successful sporting lore.
That said, if TCU win successful unseating yet different of assemblage football’s modern powerhouses, it volition beryllium hard to hyperbolize the standard of their achievement. The Horned Dogs person not won a nationalist rubric since 1938, and nary squad from the Big 12 league has conquered the federation since 2005.
After a week wherever results person rightly taken a backmost seat, Monday’s fixture volition supply a invited instrumentality to the ebbs and flows of the high-stakes assemblage sporting theater.
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