Line is UGa (-13.5)
TCU pays out at 5:1
Over/Under is 63.5
If this is the year the Big XII wins the playoff it will be sweet sweet irony given that $EC is stealing their two marquee programs.
Discuss.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.

Comments
My wife is a UGA fan and I have an early work meeting awhile away from my house. May just have to call it an early night. Hoping for just a good game that I can rewatch later.
If SEC Shorts has taught me anything, it's that UGA and Hope have a strained relationship
I hope I'm wrong but I just can't see this being close.
... Would be nice if TCU pulled the upset though.
....you were not wrong....
It's actually worse than I thought it would be.
I'm not concerned about the winner, I just want the semifinal high points/high drama to continue. UGA will probably win, but I hope TCU makes them sweat!
Much like I think our window to win a national title in my lifetime/before college football ceases to exist has passed, I think TCU has to win this game tonight or they will
join us innever winningone again.This was the perfect storm for TCU. You make the 4 team playoff, avoid Bama entirely, get the easier semi-final and catch lightning in a bottle against Michigan, now you're 60 minutes from a potential national championship.
Once the playoff expands, you will likely face multiple of Bama, UGA, Ohio State level programs (or whatever team is standing in for them in the future), and you have to win 3 or 4 games (TCU would have had to win 4 this season as a non-champ). The probability of them winning 4 games in a row, with probably 2, possibly 3, and as many as 4 of those being underdog probabilities... well it's technically "possible," but it certainly isn't probable.
edit: Definitely got two different sentences mixed in my head in that first part.
or they will join us in never winning one again
Wait . . . We have not yet not won a National Championship in the future.
Good catch lol. That was not on purpose.
The big thing TCU has going for it, I assume, is that they're located in football mecca - Texas, and a pretty large metropolitan area.
Yeah it definitely helps, and depending how things shake out with conferences, they might have an easier path to conference titles relative to many teams. However, I think they would need a substantial uptick in talent that while plausible based on location, seems unlikely to overtake Texas and/or Texas A&M year over year in that regard, while still competing with Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and many others for those Texas kids.
If history is any indicator, the sad part about that is that we are as close in football as we are in any other sport all things considering. VT has never won a team national title, ever in any sport. Which one is the "closest" today? Softball? Wrestling ? - although if you know wrestling, we are not really close to winning a natty- we need many more qualifiers to seriously contend. Women's hoops? not close at all- need to win a game in the tourney before you win 6 games- track?- again see wrestling. I'd argue football- which just won 3 games- is as close as any. We simply need to win the ACC with less than 2 losses to give ourselves a shot. We have won the ACC 4 times, we have won 10-11 games several times. That is step 1. We can get back there in our lifetimes.
Rugby?
That is a club sport at VT
Still back to back National Champions for our group.
Yes. One with a national championship.
I mean wrestling got a team trophy back in 2016 but I think tech was still like 30ish (maybe alot more I can't remember) points from the natty
I mean if they win tonight TCU can win their 2nd title in 13 years (they don't claim 2010, but they won an ncaa title per ncaa rules in 2010)
I would take the over.
You are right that TCU caught the easier matchup. Michigan was unbeaten, but really only tested once or twice. Their first five games were against some of the worst teams in the Country.
I would love to see TCU win, but I think UGA doesn't overlook TCU like they did anOSU. My gut? UGA 42/ TCU 38
Well I got the OVER part right...
Wow, TCU was just manhandled.
LETS GO HORNED FROGS!!!!!

I 100% forgot that this was tonight
Monday night championship games are nonsense.
So did TCU
Well, you didn't miss any competitive football, that's for sure.
Good thing this is on a Monday night with a late start. Otherwise it might be inconvenient for a majority of viewers.
At least it started before 8pm today, had been 8:15 or later in previous years so there's a small improvement. Would be much better to have this game on Saturday night but the NFL
playoffshas that time slot.Except this past saturday wasn't even the playoffs (although i guess you could argue it was a "playoff game" for both Jax & Ten)
No reason why it shouldn't be saturday other than that NFL is king
Oops, it wasn't the playoffs, thanks for the correction. I agree, this game should be on Saturday. I would love for the NFL to move their games up to 1pm and 4pm on Saturday. Then we could end with the national championship at 8pm. No chance the NFL gives up that evening slot though. I wonder how a Friday night national championship would do instead.
Pat McAfee alt telecast on ESPN2 for the win!
Im not sure I'll be spending any time on the main broadcast now
Given how the actual game went, watching this version of the telecast was DEFINITELY the right call
Roll Frogs
I think you mean "hop", or maybe "leap"
No No they rolled right over
Hoping to see some bonkers "Boise State Fiesta Bowl" style gadget plays to propel TCU to a victory.
Realistically expecting UGA to dominate.
What time is the actual kickoff? ESPN just has a blanket "7:30" across everything... but I have a lot of suspicions that this is nowhere near the actual kickoff time.
Sling has pre-game from 7:30-7:45 and game at 7:45 🤷♀️
Lee Corso could have gone any number of ways with the TCU head- a little disappointed he simply chose a white TCU hat for the championship.
I have a great deal of respect for Kirby Smart and UGA, but I want TCU to win because they are not SEC.
The sign language interpreter was named Seven
George Costanza out there smiling right now
I would've preferred Soda
UGA gonna boatrace em
TCU doing too much side to side. Their only hope is to go full Mike Leach and go air raid
Cameras pan the TCU cheerleaders and my 9th grader says..."dang I may need to go to TCU" ha.
I the UGA is gonna run away with this.
There's a good chance I would've partied my way out of any Texas U, as an undergrad. At VT, I found pretty much the ideal balance. And we won 10+ Football games every season, Go Beamerball!
With my civilian career in the Energy Sector, it makes sense to go to one of these Texas Universities for my postgrad. Great alumni networks, and Aggie and Longhorn fans keep trying to win over my allegiance.
Texas has more than lived up to its reputation of being a fine place to live and work in.
what a beautiful play design there
the DB was completely frozen after seeing the RB coming out of the backfield
Looks like he was in more of a zone, and thought he had safety help over the top.
linebackers biting hard on the run fake (pulling guard and everything) jet sweep left the CB with two guys to cover.
If he stays with the WR it's still a TD.
1) the WR is probably still open. The Slot WR was definitely open vs the safety
2) the RB is left wide open with maybe 2 defenders who have a shot at a tackle from bad angles
O/U 62.5 more times we hear the phrase "sugar huddle"
UGA is just too fast for TCU.
Too fast, too big, too strong. The Bowers/McConkey combination reminds me of Gronk/Hernandez.
TCUs edge defending would give mr jet sweep cornelson all kinds of good ideas.
TCUs secondary looks so slow
This game is over ladies and gentlemen.
I guess this cements my lack of interest. Last year I had no idea when the championship game was until after it was over and I saw the thread here on TKP. Did not know this game was going on until I saw the thread here.
I'm just ready for this game to be over so I can start having unrealistic expectations for us next season!
UGA should just play the practice squads of the Bears, Texans, Cardinals and Colts
Seriously. Are there even 5 guys on the two-deep who won't at least see a UDFA opportunity? It's an NFL apprenticeship program with no practical limits. There's no explicit salary to cap; scholarships mean nothing when you can just NIL 5* walk-ons; and the transfer portal is now just free agency, so you can cherry-pick anybody who got better than you expected.
This is a preposterous and alarmist comment. No blue chip prospect is foregoing a scholarship. You are severely overestimating how much NIL money is out there.
The transfer portal argument doesn't hold much weight either (at least not with this uga team, which didn't take any transfers in 2022, and only 3 transfers in 2021).
Finally, the sport has always been severely lopsided. In the last 30 years, only 14 programs have won a natty (5 programs in the 9 year history of the playoff, and 11 programs in the 16 years of the BCS).
Why would they? When they're having top 5 recruiting classes every year, their biggest issue is managing their depth. They've got blue-chippers not even in the two-deep. Why would they bring in an unknown, when their depth is most likely better?
I totally agree with you - I was just responding to VFR, who insinuated that one of the reasons that UGA has/had such a massive advantage is because of the transfer portal. That's not the case.
Maybe the reality is that UGA has an outsized advantage with the transfer portal, such that if they needed to use it, they could cherrypick whoever they needed from it.
But they have the same advantage with high school recruits too?
Everyone keeps saying that NIL and Transfer portal make the best teams even better and give the little guy no chance. That's not what we've seen so far.
TCU is a 'little guy' that used both of these new rules to their advantage to become a top 2-3 team in the country.
I was not attempting to insinuate that UGA took advantage of all of these. I was trying to pointing out the system has these egregious flaws that can be exploited by anyone going forward, separately or in combination
McConkey was a 2 or 3-star Kirby coached into a 5-star. I don't think they used the portal for this last season.
No need to stay up to watch this one pretty big bummer of a national title game.
Still holding out for a furious comeback by TCU so they make the over AND TCU(+13.5)...also to make the 2nd half worth watching instead of a lesson in burning clock
Yeah this is super disappointing, ball game and channel changed at HT, super lame.
Best playoff games ever, absolute worst title game ever.
This ^
Unless something totally unexpected happens in half 2.
Note that UGA gets the ball to start the aforementioned half 2
IT GETS EVEN WORSE
This is a personification of the death of the sport for me.
Same here. The big games are just so bloated and over-commercialized now. Just an enormous and unashamed cash grab.
Going just as I thought it would...
I'm going to put my kid to bed
Turn out the lights. The party's over!
Line was what?
So Kirby Smart is gonna get bored and delete his NCAA 14 Dynasty right?
UGA going to hit the over by themselves
Well at least those of us who have to wake up early for work tomorrow don't have to worry about any drama in the second half
"We just need our guys to go out and execute better" *crinkle water bottle* "I thought we designed a good game plan to our strengths, we just didn't execute." *sip from water followed by crinkle directly into mic*
This will go down as probably the worst National Championship game of all time
USC Oklahoma for the 2004 championship was pretty bad, so was Florida's beat down of OSU in 2006. But this one probably takes the cake.
FOWLER JUST SAID HYPNOTOAD OUT LOUD! ALL HAIL HYPNOTOAD!
For real, I love the fact that Hypnotoad, which is a niche character from my favorite animated sitcom, has somehow become the mascot for TCU.
TCU mentality right about now
The punishment is death...by Snu Snu
Teams with tons of raw talent and gobs of cash to pay elite coaches and support staff will win championships
No one else has a shot. I feel stupid for watching
Don't feel stupid for watching; feel stupid for thinking that the championship defines a season. College football was never intended to be that way.
Well, VT showed up in similar dynamic. VT led at start of 4th qtr.
Bulldogs vs the Houston Texans, whats the line? Texans -3?
Honestly, Texans would bury Georgia. That's not a knock on UGA, they are the new standard. But the worst NFL player is still better than 99% of every other football player out there.
I assumed the previous post was tongue in cheek.
The difference between the best college team of all time and the worst nfl team of 2022 is bigger than the gap between UGA and TCU.
Oh I know he was joking. Reminds me of years ago when the Bengals used to be trash and everyone liked to say Alabama could beat them.
I will say this though...there was some BAD football in the NFL this year.
I've watched most of the game with TCU's Austin alums tonight. nice fans, as is par for Texas hospitality
UGA is a juggernaut. Is it true that we really had a shot at hiring Kirby Smart after Beamer announced his retirement?
I have never heard this before
Yes. He liked us. Can you imagine what thr Hokies would be like right now?
Honestly forgot the game was tonight, just checked the score...glad I didn't waste my evening
Georgia started pulling starters at the start of the 4th quarter
Yikes, what an ass whipping.
So excited about the expanded playoff
I think the expanded playoff would do better at eliminating these blowouts. TCU likely gets eliminated earlier
At least TCU exposed the overrated Michigan. Michigan might be thanking stars they didn't get that beating last night.
Yeah, Michigan was beaten by the guys who got that beating last night.
and Michigan beat the only team that gave UGa a run for their money (excepting lowly Missou).
So... TCU>Michigan>anOSU< UGa>>TCU?
Trying to apply the transitive property to college football leads only to madness.
I don't think Michigan was overrated. They were the #2 team in the country, and now, they'll be ranked somewhere between 2 and 4. That's pretty accurate IMO.
Also, I don't think TCU 'exposed' them. TCU recovered a lot more turnovers than they usually do. TCU's post-game win expectancy was 67.5% (source - see row 1238). For context, our post-game win expectancy against ODU this year was 75.2% (see row 1555 in the same spreadsheet). This means that, given how all 4 teams played in the two respective games, VT was more likely to beat ODU than TCU was to beat Michigan.
All that to say - it's a huge stretch to say that Michigan was 'exposed' or 'overrated'
You have your opinion. I hate Michigan and their weak schedule, I might have had Michigan in the top 5, but they weren't my #2. They played only a few tough teams the entire year. TCU was my favorite in their game against Michigan.
I tend to think the beating UGA gave TCU would have been the same to Michigan.
Totally agree - the only reason OSU was able to compete with UGA was because they have NFL ready wide receivers and 3.5 weeks to game plan (I happen to think that Ryan Day is really good at devising game plans given ample time to prep, but I digress).
But they are close to #2. I don't think you can confidently find 4 teams better than Michigan. UGA, obviously. TCU. And...??? You want to argue OSU, who they beat head to head? I suppose you could argue Alabama or USC (I would not argue USC, but one could). Utah, Kansas State, Tulane, or anyone else I can think of would be a very tough argument.
Kinda like when we played Auburn at the end of the '04 season.... they got screwed by the BCS which saved them from the beating that Oklahoma took instead.
If anything I'm more excited. The semifinal games this year were awesome. Who cares if the final was a dud. Georgia was clearly the best team. The expanded playoff should actually reduce the odds of this happening moving forward.
Kirby Smart got a defending champ, undefeated team playing against a non traditional power and #4 seed to play with a huge chip on their shoulder. That is "bellichick" level stuff -it is. Georgia was on a mission. Getting a team of 18-22 year olds to focus like that on an inferior opponent after having won a title last year is absolutely elite. Most dominating championship performance - umm ever. Hat tip
PS. appreciate the down votes on this. lol. unreal
Literally most dominating bowl performance ever. Biggest margin of victory. The yardage disparity was obscene.
But it doesn't bother me. Georgia was better than every other team
VT beat Ohio State in the shoe. A hall of fame coach couldn't get them to focus on a bad ECU team at home a week later. Puts it in perspective doesn't it?
Tbf, Georgia failed to get their 18-22 year olds focused against Kent State and Mizzou this year either, but they were just so talented that it ultimately didn't matter.
Let's be honest, their backups would probably have been fine against Kent State and Mizzou. It is hard to be laser focused each week.
Agreed. As long as we get more good football, I don't really care who wins (unless the Hokies are involved, obv.)
28-3 as a starter. What a stud, especially as a walk-on.
Why would you post those two numbers together?
lolololol
Technically, yes Bennett was a walk on once upon a time. I think that when you have actually been on scholarship 2 years, win back to back natty's that narrative is not the narrative any longer.
Also, he's 26 years old (I believe I heard there's 7 starting NFL QBs who are younger than him) and has the best offensive supporting cast in the NCAA (except for maybe Ohio State).
I think there's a lot of above average college football QBs who are good enough to win a national championship at that age with that many stars around them.
Did anyone else hear that Stetson Bennett started as a walk-on and didn't have any offers out of high school?? I think they even said he had to earn his spot and work his way to starting QB. /s
Georgia fans are going to be pretty insufferable this offseason. Alabama fans are bad enough.
Lucky for me, I don't know any
They bark at children.
Oh, National Championship, I apologize.
I forgot you were there.
You may go now.
Can't wait for Stetson Bennett to turn into Chris Weinke 2.0
Glad I forgot about it!
Wow what a great game. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time lol.
Also man, truly inspired by Stetson Bennett. You too can accomplish anything you want if you go to college for 6 years!
there was one interesting part when TCU scored their first touchdown and was within three for about 2 minutes.
Buuuuut....that was about it.
On another note, I read in an article that Kirby Smart saw his son crying after the game was over and he asked him why he was crying. His son said, "Stetson is gonna leave..." and Kirby replies "He's 25! He has to leave." Made me chuckle but man 25.
It gets even more hilarious when you compare Stetson Bennett to Lamar Jackson, who is only 9 months older than Stetson but has already played 5 seasons in the NFL. It's not really a fair comparison, but still really funny.
Or, our own Tremaine Edmunds. He's 24 and has five whole NFL seasons under his belt.
Stetson Bennett the 4th. That name sounds like the guy that would show up at the factory to crush the union and then let them know their kids are not getting a turkey for Christmas, all while twisting his mustache and adjusting his monocle.
I'm joking. He might be a great guy, I've got no idea, although as an observer he seems a little cocky. But good on him, 2 Nattys and he's a legend in Georgia. But there were 68 quarterbacks that started a game in the NFL this season, and I would say he's not better than maybe a few of them. And I'll even include the Giant's Davis Webb. Guy is 6'5", 227. Stetson is...significantly smaller.
The oldest starting QB in the AFC bracket is...Patrick Mahomes. 27 year old geezer
He shouldn't even try for the NFL, he should just open a car dealership in Athens and never pay for a drink the rest of his life.
Well, at least we know that one of his sons (Stetson Bennett V) will get an automatic scholarship to college.
He can set his sights much higher than that in Georgia. Shoot, that state almost put Herschel Walker in the US Senate for being able to run good.
He's gonna have a good life, and good on him. But it won't be in the NFL
I know getting a great QB on a rookie deal (which, I know, Mahomes is not) is the way to win with the salary cap, but that is still an absurd statistic.
Simpler than that. You don't win in the NFL without an elite/top half QB. You don't. Are there rare anomalies? sure, but if you aren't top half at that position, you don't win. That's why the league is so horrible at drafting QBs in general - especially early rounds. Horrible hit rate. Take Chicago. If I am running that team, we just won 2 games with fields. 2.. in a mediocre division. So he aint it. Period. Move on. Arizona? He aint it. Move on. New England? Move on. Baltimore? Give that man all the money he wants on the flip side of that. It's a QB league. Brady is in the playoffs at 46 years old. If your guy aint it- move on. quickly.
I don't think Lamar is going to get the contract that he wants. He just lost a lot of leverage by getting hurt in a contract year. He had turned down their first offer (which understandably was a good offer) just not a fully guaranteed highest paying offer.
The fact that they tanked when he was out means they need to improve the entire offense, no one piece should be indispensable. Look at Dallas, the backup might be better than the star.
He is also his own agent. so good luck with that Lamar
Didn't realize that. Bummer for him. Being injured 9 of last 21 games doesn't help either.
Lamar is going to get his. Look no further than how the Ravens look without him. Either they pay him or someone else will. Maybe even a team that has an actual #1 receiver.
I'm not a Ravens fan even a little bit, but it's been clear that him not playing was a calculated business decision that I think will actually work out well for him. That POS Watson got paid, Russell "I'm cooked" Wilson got paid. I'd prefer Lamar over either of those guys right now if I was a team looking for a QB. Not to mention that the Ravens ready went all in on changing up their scheme and roster to complement Jackson's skill set
Lamar's gonna wind up on the jets, just watch
As things currently stand, it's almost required to win it all in the league right now (really good QB on a rookie deal and money well spent filling in the roster around them)
Then you see what happens to almost every team after that big contract comes for the QB. Kansas City has avoided it "so far", but the bill is coming due eventually.
As an Eagles fan, I love Jalen Hurts and the work he has put in, and the GM made the right moves in the off-season. They technically have Hurts for one more year in the rookie deal after this, but they won't wait that long to pay the kid. And he deserves it. But it makes those windows of opportunity tight.
Edit: couldn't agree more with DC above. There are not 32 starting caliber QBs in the NFL...which is a problem when you have 32 teams. Fields is a great example. If the Bears were a competent franchise, they take their pick at quarterback and say "Justin, you're a running back now"
He's actually Lunch Pail all the way. Working class family, had to earn his spot as a walk-on, played at a smaller school for a couple of years. Kept a good attitude the entire time everyone talked up JT Daniels (who didn't play well at WVU this year) even as they headed to the Natty last year. Genuinely nice guy.
The cockiness comes from the chip he has with the sports media that ALWAYS talked him down over other QBs. But with with regular folks he's just real people. Hope he gets a home in the NFL.
Not helping his draft grade with instances like this (arrested less than a mile from my house).
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/stetson-bennett-georgia-standout-quarterb...
Yeah that's just poor sportsmanship going door to door in Dallas letting everyone know how bad he beat their team. /S
Just popped in to say GO DAWGS and pop back out.
Not gonna lie, though, I long for the day in which my first love can return to these conversations around the national championship.
I would like to reiterate my "shit in our hands and clap" comment from prior. Doesn't matter what kind of season you have and how Cinderella it is, if you're not one of 4-6 teams, you're not winning a CFB natty.
Anyone who watched UGA blowout multiple P5 teams including SIX Top-25 teams (including you Tennessee) and thought this wouldn't be the outcome is crazy
didn't see your earlier quote but....
via GIPHY
Thank goodness we have the playoffs and got two good games this year instead of just this (but with Michigan). Can't wait for the expansion to 12 so that we get more meaningful and good games to watch every year.
At least my 4-way parlay hit last night.
Ga money line, Stetson with 3+ TD passes, Stetson over 250 yards, and over 62.5. Made keeping the game on the TV bearable.