Vengeful Dawgs dance to championship
ATLANTA — What a difference three weeks can make.
Bouncing back from a blowout loss to Auburn, No. 6 Georgia turned the rematch into a rout of its own. Roquan Smith came up with two crucial turnovers, freshman Jake Fromm threw a pair of touchdown passes and the Bulldogs cruised to a 28-7 victory over the No. 2 Tigers in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday.
Georgia (12-1) is almost certainly headed to the College Football Playoff in just its second year under coach Kirby Smart, who learned a thing or two about what it took to get there in his previous job as Nick Saban's defensive coordinator at Alabama.
“We were ready,” Fromm said. “We wanted to show that we could play better than we did.”
As the final seconds ticked down on a thoroughly dominating performance, Smart took the customary drenching with a gleeful smile and bounced up and down on the sideline with his players, having guided the Bulldogs to their first SEC championship since 2005.
Of their prize.
Georgia hasn't won a national title since 1980, a drought that has only grown more and more irritating to the red-and-black course, they've got sights on a bigger faithful as schools all around them — Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Clemson, Florida State — finished No. 1 in the years since.
Auburn (10-3) was the hottest team in the country, rolling into Atlanta after wins over Georgia and thenNo. 1 Alabama in its last three games. But the Tigers were stymied by their own mistakes, also including a blocked field goal, and they had no answer for a Georgia team eager to make up for its embarrassing 40-17 defeat on the Plains .
“They flipped the script on us from the last game,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said.
Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and freshman D'Andre Swift provided a much more effective running game , which opened up things for the young quarterback. Fromm completed 16 of 22 passes for 183 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown to Isaac Nauta in the second quarter and a 6-yarder to Terry Godwin with just over 13 minutes remaining that essentially sealed Georgia's victory.
The Bulldogs struggled to an 8-5 mark in Smart's first season, but the former Georgia defensive back insisted he was establishing a culture that would return his alma mater to national prominence.
It happened in Year 2. Georgia will surely move into the top four after its dominating performance against the Tigers. Auburn managed only 259 yards after piling up 488 in its Nov. 11 rout of the Bulldogs.
Swift, another impressive Georgia freshman, finished off the Georgia's rout by breaking loose for a 64-yard touchdown run with 10:34 remaining . The Georgia line opened up a huge hole through the left side, receiver Javon Wims made a key block on the perimeter and Swift dashed to the end zone without being touched, sending the Georgia fans into a raucous celebration that figured to go on well into the night.
Swift rushed for 88 yards, Chubb had 77 and Michel added 45 before he left the game in the third quarter with what is believed to be a minor knee injury. In the first game, Chubb was held to 27 and Michel 21 — their lowest outputs of the season.