Hello and Roll Tide!

Alabama will take on the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday night to decide the SEC Championship. The Tide were victorious in Athens back in week 5, defeating the Bulldogs 24-21. Alabama will wear their home jerseys as they finished the season 1st place in the SEC. This will be Kalen DeBoer’s first time playing in the SEC Championship, a game where Alabama historically has had a lot of success: Alabama’s all-time record in the SEC Title game is 11-4. Including this game, the SEC Champion has been either Alabama or Georgia 12 of the last 13 seasons. Even when teams such as Ole Miss and Texas A&M are having historic seasons, the classic matchup of Alabama vs Georgia will crown the Champion of the SEC. Below are injury updates, an SEC Championship Preview, and SEC Championship Storylines. Let’s go!

Injury Updates:

  • LT Overton and Kelby Collins were added to the report and will be OUT
  • Kam Dewberry, Jam Miller, and Josh Cuevas remain QUESTIONABLE

SEC Championship: Georgia Bulldogs

Since Kirby Smart took over the Georgia football program, Alabama and Georgia constantly find themselves on a collision course. This will be Kirby’s 9th time playing against the Tide and his Bulldogs have only won once. Alabama has won 10 of the last 11 meetings with the Bulldogs. Kalen DeBoer sports a 2-0 record against Georgia and hopes to improve to 3-0 in only two seasons with the Tide. Both teams appear to be comfortably in the College Football Playoff, and the winner should occupy one of the 4 BYEs. Since the last meeting, Georgia is 8-0 outscoring their opponents 249 to 122. Their offense has found a rhythm behind Gunner Stockton who has 20 passing touchdowns and 8 on the ground. Nate Frazier is a great compliment to the pass game, rushing for 809 yards and 5 touchdowns during the regular season. His 5.6 yards per carry is 6th among SEC running backs with over 100 attempts. The strong run game allows for Georgia to take shots on play action passes. With 68 catches, Zachariah Branch is Gunner’s favorite target. The next highest receptions is Dillon Bell with only 23. Georgia’s defense has stepped up over the back half of this season. They rank 12th nationally allowing only 16.7 points per game. Recently they limited a talented Texas offense to 10 total points. Similarly, Georgia’s defense only allows 290.8 yards per game, 13th best in the nation. This is heavily due to their fierce rushing defense led by linebacker CJ Allen. With 80 total tackles, CJ Allen ranks 3rd in the SEC. Alongside Allen is Raylen Wilson who has 65 tackles. The one piece that is missing in the front seven is a pass rush. With only 17 sacks, Georgia ranks dead last in the SEC. They did find success against Texas, sacking Arch Manning 3 times. Without the pass rush, the secondary has still produced. Ellis Robinson IV leads the team with 4 interceptions and 5 pass deflections. Demello Jones and Daylen Everette also have 5 pass deflections as this secondary is very physical contesting the football.

SEC Championship Storylines:

Defensive line Depth: LT Overton and Kelby Collins showed up on the injury report out of nowhere. With Jah-Marien Latham already out for the season, the Bandit role just got very thin. Jordan Renaud, Keon Keeley, and Fatuatoa Henry have taken snaps at Bandit this season but primarily in garbage time or specific blitz packages. We may see more sets with multiple Wolfs, replacing the Bandit. This would be similar to the “Cheetah” package with Will Anderson and Dallas Turner, but this edition would feature Qua Russaw and Yhonzae Pierre. Kane will have to get creative replacing LT.

Third Down Magic: When Alabama defeated Georgia earlier in the season, they seemed to have every answer on third down. Bama converted on 13 of 19 third downs. This kept Georgia’s offense off of the field, giving Alabama the edge in time of possession. It will be very difficult to replicate a performance like this, but Alabama will need to play well on third down to maintain an edge over a very talented Georgia team.

Let it fly, Ty: Ty hasn’t quite looked like himself the last few weeks, passing for 147 yards against Eastern Illinois and only 122 against Auburn. The pick-6 against Oklahoma may have shaken his confidence. Alabama relied heavily on the run-game in the last 2 contests. Ty was fantastic in week 5 against Georgia and his sharpness led to the 68% conversion rate on 3rd down. Ty is his own toughest critic and will need to play well in order for Alabama to hoist the SEC Championship trophy.

Can the Run game stay strong?: Jam Miller was effective against Georgia before exiting with an injury in week 5. Alabama did not score against Georgia after his injury. Jam was injured against Auburn and likely will not be 100% if he plays on Saturday. Alabama looked in control against Auburn behind Jam’s efforts and will likely have to lean on Daniel Hill tomorrow. Just when they started to establish the run, injuries set them back again. If Alabama is able to run the football, it will take pressure off of the pass attack and open up play action downfield.

What is your score prediction? Who will have a breakout performance? Send any questions or comments my way! If you know of anyone interested in joining the newsletter, send me their contact info.

Roll Tide! -Jake