Georgia, like Michigan, really has no idea who or what TCU football is
Georgia is a 12.5-point favorite, and most of the sports consuming public believes the No. 1 ranked Bulldogs will roll No. 3 TCU in the national title game on Monday night in Los Angeles.
“I know we’re going in with the dog mentality,” Georgia defensive lineman Bear Alexander told me Saturday. “And, like they say, dogs always come out on top.”
His head coach, Kirby Smart, will be thrilled to read that his freshman made such remarks, but Alexander is hardly alone with his feelings. Also, he’s a five-star defensive tackle, so Smart will deal with it.
Before he became a coveted recruit at IMG Academy, Alexander was briefly a defensive tackle at Fort Worth Brewer, and he is one of the few on the Bulldogs’ roster who knows anything about TCU.
When he was at Brewer, if someone would have told him that TCU would reach a national title game in football, “I wouldn’t have believed them. Not TCU. I would not have believed it at that specific time.”
And now?
“I mean, we’re here?” he said.
Georgia players did their best to respect its opponent when every member of the team and coaching staff was made available to the media on Saturday morning, but it’s apparent most of them know little about TCU.
Take that however you want.
TCU is a foreign quantity to Georgia.
The last time these teams played was the “memorable” 2016 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, when Georgia defeated TCU 31-23 in Smart’s first season. TCU finished 6-7 that year.
“I know nothing about TCU, to be honest. I didn’t even know where the school is at,” Georgia running back Kenny McIntosh said when I asked him what he knew about TCU. “I don’t think I was even recruited by them.”
He wasn’t. He’s from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. and there is a 101 percent chance TCU would not have bothered to recruit the 10th ranked running back in the country in 2018.
Georgia sophomore defensive back Javon Bullard said, “I really don’t know anything about the school in particular except that they have a good football team.”
The Michigan players said basically the same thing before they played TCU in the Fiesta Bowl.
Georgia’s familiarity with TCU started maybe in late October, when they noticed the Horned Frogs were 8-0.
“You don’t see a lot of teams win eight games that are undefeated,” Georgia defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse said. “They’re a good team. They put up a lot of numbers. We heard about their quarterback doing a lot of good things.
“It wasn’t something we paid too much attention to, but it was something we were aware of, that TCU could be a team we could play. Ohio State could be a team we could play.”
Stackhouse’s initial familiarity with TCU wasn’t because of anything that the team really did, or even a player who is on the team.
“Growing up I knew them. It wasn’t a big name, but I knew them. The Frogs. Purple. Zachary Evans,” Stackhouse said.
Zach Evans was a former five-star recruit out of the Houston area who originally committed to Georgia in 2020. After a bizarre set of circumstances, he signed with TCU and played for the Horned Frogs in 2020 and 2021.
He transferred from TCU to Ole Miss, and played for the Rebels in 2022. He recently announced that he will enter the NFL Draft this spring.
“He was in my class, and we all knew he went to TCU,” Stackhouse said. “That’s when TCU became a thing for us. We were like, ‘Why is one of the best running backs in our class going to TCU?’”
Yes. Why did one of the best running backs in the class of 2020 flip from Georgia to TCU? (He was an immature drama queen and Georgia, and eventually TCU, were only too glad to be done with him despite his talent).
“I guess it’s a good school,” Stackhouse said, “that’s the way we looked at it.”
Only until this week, when Georgia began to prepare for TCU, did most of the players become familiar with this opponent.
While they prepared to play No. 4 Ohio State in the Peach Bowl, the players tried to watch TCU’s game against Michigan on the JumboTron at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“They have a Heisman candidate quarterback. They get the ball to their playmakers. They are a really good team,” Bullard said. “They are here for a reason, and they earned the right to be here just like we did. It’s going to be a great matchup.”
That’s what he said.
Chances are most of the Georgia players think like Bear Alexander; that “dogs always come out on top.”
“I know what the narrative is,” Stackhouse said.
Which is Georgia will roll to a second straight national title.
“I like the mindset that we have to prove it,” Stackhouse said.
Considering the way TCU has played this season, however the national title game ends all of the Georgia players will know who and what TCU is.
[ UPDATE: After watching Georgia play TCU in the national title game, the Georgia players still don’t know who or what TCU is. ]
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
