Alabama, Georgia to meet in national championship
ARLINGTON, Texas — Brian Robinson Jr. ran for a career-high 204 yards and top-ranked Alabama rolled into yet another national championship game by physically overwhelming the first non-Power Five team to make the College Football Playoff.
Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young threw three touchdown passes while mostly avoiding Cincinnati’s standout cornerbacks and the Crimson Tide beat the Bearcats 27-6 in the CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl on Friday. It was the sixth semifinal victory in a row for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama (13-1) has missed the four-team playoff only once and will try to win its second national title in a row and fourth in the eight seasons of the CFP format. The Crimson Tide will play either No. 2 Michigan or No. 3 Georgia, the previously undefeated team Alabama beat for the SEC title, in the national title game Jan. 10 in Indianapolis.
“I’m really, really proud of our team, our players. I think they showed great competitive character out there,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Guys showed a lot of resiliency all year, to be able to have the opportunity to get to this game. They showed a lot of resiliency … played together as a team, everybody kind of had each other’s back.”
Alabama clearly was doing what it could to minimize the impact of cornerbacks Ahmad Gardner and Coby Bryant, and pretty much succeeded with Robinson rushing 26 times and Young throwing a lot of short, safe passes — though he did find hit Ja’Core Brooks for a 44-yard catch-and-run TD on a play away from the standout defenders for a 17-3 lead just before halftime.
“As a young kid, just always wanted to be a part of this program. Just always wanted to play for a national championship,” said Robinson, the fifth-year senior from Tuscaloosa in his first season as the featured back. “Just being able to go out there and just lead this team in this big game on this big stage … it’s like a dream come true.”
The Crimson Tide opened the game with 10 consecutive runs before putting three receivers opposite of Gardner, who hasn’t given up a TD in coverage in his college career. Young found Slade Bolden open in the left flat for an 8-yard TD pass that put Alabama ahead to stay.
With their own dynamic quarterback in Desmond Ridder, the NFL prospect who returned for an extra season for just this chance, the Bearcats (13-1) were the nation’s only undefeated team until facing the playoff standard bearer.
“Obviously this is gut-wrenching and really, really difficult for everybody, but most importantly for the 30 or so seniors that have brought this program and this team so far,” Bearcats coach Luke Fickell said.
Cincinnati’s breakthrough into the four-team playoff was bolstered by a win the first Saturday of October at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish, who lost 31-14 to Alabama in a CFP semifinal Rose Bowl played at AT&T Stadium last New Year’s Day, didn’t lose another game this season and finished fifth in the final CFP rankings behind the history-making Bearcats.
Ridder was sacked six times and outside of a 9-yard run on the opening play of the second half never got to hurt Bama with his feet. He was 17-of-32 passing or 144 yards.
“It’s one thing to sit there and watch on film, and to sit there and draw the twists and stunts they do on the board and work it through practice,” Ridder said. “It’s another thing to come down here and play it on a big stage.”
Young, a 20-year-old sophomore, has a chance to become the fifth Alabama quarterback in 13 seasons to win a national title as a first-year starter. He completed 17 of 28 passes for 181 yards in the playoff game, four weeks after setting an SEC championship game record with 421 yards passing in a win over Georgia and three weeks after being the first Crimson Tide QB to win a Heisman Trophy.
His only interception came late in the third quarter when he overthrew All-America receiver Jameson Williams in a crowd of defenders and was picked off by Bryan Cook on the logo at midfield. Williams caught the other seven passes thrown his way for 62 yards, the longest being 20 yards.
After Cook’s interception, the Bearcats went three-and-out for the fifth time in the game, with Ridder sacked for 10-yard loss on third down.
The Bearcats had a season-low 218 total yards and held without a touchdown for the first time since a 42-0 loss at Ohio State in the second game of the 2019 season, the last time they had played a top-five team.
“We knew the battle in the trenches was going to be a big deal, and that’s kind of where the game was won,” Fickell said. “In no phase of it did we give ourselves an opportunity.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Cincinnati: It was only the second loss in two seasons for the Bearcats, both setbacks coming in their final games. They lost 24-21 to Georgia on a last-second field goal in the Peach Bowl last New Year’s Day. … Cincinnati drove for field goals by Cole Smith (37 and 31 yards) on the opening drive of each half, but struggled to move the ball outside of those two drives.
Alabama: After the Tide never got on track with their running game most of the season, fifth-year senior Robinson and the rushers led them in the semifinal game with 301 yards. Trey Sanders had 14carries for 67 yards. Going into the Cotton Bowl, the Crimson Tide were averaging 147.6 yards per game, their lowest total in 15 seasons under Saban.
UP NEXT
Cincinnati: With Ridder, “Sauce” Gardner and Bryant all wrapping up their college careers, and all those other seniors that were part of this year’s team, the Bearcats will have a lot of new faces in key roles when they open their 2022 season, Sept. 3 at SEC team Arkansas.
Alabama: Its sixth national championship game in seven years.
GEORGIA 34, MICHIGAN 11
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Michigan won the Orange Bowl coin toss.
And that’s the last thing that went right for the Wolverines in 2021.
A team that had barely trailed all season — never by more than four points — got into a hole quickly and only saw it deepen the rest of the way. Michigan’s appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinals did not go anywhere near according to plan, the Wolverines’ season ending Friday night with a 34-11 loss to Georgia in the Orange Bowl.
“Congratulations to Georgia. They played a heck of a game in all phases,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “I loved the way our guys fought. It wasn’t our best, but certainly was theirs. They played extremely well.”
By every measure, the numbers were bad. The Wolverines came in allowing 316 yards per game; Georgia had 330 by halftime. The Wolverines’ biggest deficit all season was four points; Georgia was up 7-0 after seven plays. The Wolverines had trailed for a total of 44 minutes in 2021; Georgia led for 56 minutes in this one alone.
They lost the turnover battle 3-0, gave up four sacks while not recording any, and the much-hyped strength vs. strength matchup — Michigan’s running game vs. Georgia’s defensive front — was pretty much a mismatch, with the Wolverines held to a season-low 88 yards on the ground.
It all added up to a fifth consecutive bowl loss for Michigan, the school’s worst drought since a seven-bowl-loss streak in the 1970s.
“Obviously, it’s very disappointing right now,” Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara said. “We gave it everything we’ve got and we got beat tonight.”
The Wolverines had a big home-field advantage Friday — Hard Rock Stadium, the home of the Miami Dolphins and the Orange Bowl, is owned by Stephen Ross, a Michigan alum and massive donor to his school. Of the 66,000 fans or so in attendance, two-thirds seemed to be wearing maize and blue. They even got to use the Dolphins’ sideline, which probably pleased Ross to no end.
Most of those Michigan fans were long gone before this one ended. It was 34-3 before the Wolverines found the end zone for the first time in the final minutes, far too late for anything to matter.
“We did accomplish great things this year, and although it is a disappointing way to end it, we did do great things this year,” said Josh Ross, who led Michigan with 11 tackles. “And we can’t forget about that.”
He’s right. Once the sting of this loss goes away, it’ll be easy to see Michigan took massive steps forward in 2021.
The Wolverines went 2-4 last season, an utterly forgettable year played through Year 1 of the pandemic. They were unranked to start this season, didn’t get into the Top 10 until October and then made it all the way to No. 2 in the polls. The Ohio State hex was finally solved as Michigan beat its rival. A team picked to finish fourth when the season started — that is, fourth in the Big Ten East — ended up as one of the last four teams standing in the race for the national title.
Getting overrun by Georgia doesn’t change that. It does, however, show how much work remains if the Wolverines are going to return to college football’s mountaintop.
Michigan got on the scoreboard midway through the second quarter, a short field goal cutting the deficit to 17-3. The Wolverines had Georgia facing a third-and-3 on the ensuing possession, perhaps poised to get the ball right back.
Nope.
Georgia’s James Cook went down the right sideline and hauled in a 53-yard pass from Stetson Bennett, the only reason it wasn’t a touchdown was because Cook had to slow up slightly because the ball appeared to be a bit underthrown. The Bulldogs settled for another field goal to restore the 17-point edge, and it was another tiny chance that Michigan let slip away.
An interception followed, and on the next Georgia possession, Bennett didn’t underthrow anyone. He found Jermaine Burton with a 57-yard touchdown pass, pushing the score up to 27-3 as the first half — and, really, the Michigan season — was coming to an end.
That said, when it was over, Harbaugh immediately looked ahead.
“To me, it feels like a start,” Harbaugh said. “Feels like a beginning.”
