The most maddening, hard to figure out Georgia football season in recent memory has yet another confounding twist: Dominated by Georgia Tech, an embarrassing showing at home that seemed to confirm the worst of what many suspected about this year’s team — it just isn’t very good.
That was the first paragraph of a story filed to my editor at 10:45 p.m. ET on Friday night. Georgia Tech had just scored to go up 27-13 with 5:37 left in the game. We wanted a story to go quickly after the game ended, and with print media permitted on the field at Sanford Stadium with less than five minutes left in the game, yours truly wanted to get down there to take in what was sure to be a scene of despair on the Georgia sideline and exultation on Georgia Tech’s.
Georgia is almost certainly out of the running for an at-large spot in the College Football Playoff after Friday night’s loss to Georgia Tech. The Bulldogs are now 9-3, the goodwill from their SEC schedule almost certainly canceled out by this loss, in which Georgia looked far inferior to its ACC in-state rival.
That was the third paragraph. The next two took pains to point out that all was not lost for Georgia, which could still win the SEC championship next week and get an automatic first-round bye in the Playoff. But it all came down to that now, having been stunned by its in-state rival, as I continued:
A win on Friday night would have locked up the at-large berth, so this could also end up the season-ender. Georgia was a 19.5-point favorite. It had not lost to Georgia Tech since 2016, not lost at home since 2019, and not lost a home night game since 2009. Someone with no prior knowledge of college football or these programs would have assumed Georgia Tech was the premier program.
Then I wrote three quick sections summarizing why Georgia was dominated, finishing with this final stake to the heart:
Georgia fans started heading to the exits, with 5:37 still left, leaving their team on a cold sideline to contemplate how it ended up in this position.
Feeling very good about that last line, I hit send, and started the trip from the press box down to the field.
Of course, Georgia outlasted Georgia Tech in eight overtimes to win 44-42.
Every sportswriter who’s been around long enough has these stories. The great game stories never published. In my case the most notable has always been the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship, where during halftime I put together the top 10 events that led to Georgia finally ending its 37-year championship drought. Then Tua Tagovailoa happened. Then it still looked like Georgia would pull it out in overtime. Then second-and-26 happened.
The “Washington Post” would later got four national sportswriters to provide their abandoned leads on Georgia winning it all. So they didn’t go to waste after all. Neither did mine: The next summer I repurposed them for a story on the top 10 events that led to Georgia’s “ascent as a national power.” But the actual national title would have to wait.
There have been others. The back-and-forth ending of the 2022 Peach Bowl caused a lot of cutting and rewriting. There was this year’s Georgia loss at Alabama, where we all wrote about Georgia getting blown out, then had to rewrite it into a comeback, then Alabama winning after all, then Georgia going downfield and …
The plight of sportswriters, many of whom hope for the game to be “quick and easy,” is another reminder of not only how great sports are but that narratives are decided by thin margins. Seven years ago, Alabama was still the preeminent program in the country and Georgia the pretender because a safety momentarily bought an eye fake from Tagovailoa. Three years ago, Georgia was the preeminent program and Ohio State head coach Ryan Day couldn’t win the big one, just because a long field goal wasn’t made. And on Friday night, Georgia was still safely in the Playoff just because … well, pick your play, but ultimately because of a two-point shootout that was essentially a coin toss.
This is probably how it’s going to be the rest of the way. We have an expanded Playoff but we may not have any great teams. Oregon is the lone unbeaten, and it still barely won at home against Ohio State, largely because an offensive pass interference pushed the Buckeyes out of field position.
Parity appears to reign, and games — or perhaps programs and history — may be decided because of single, random plays.
About an hour after an eight-overtime win that Kirby Smart called “epic,” the Georgia head coach walked out of his postgame news conference. He walked in silence for a few moments, then looked up at the sky, shook his head and let out a high-pitched sigh. The kind you make when you’re exhausted, but relieved, and don’t know what else to say.
A long night, in what has already been a long season, and more to go. Plenty to write about. Just don’t hit “publish” until it’s really over.
(Photo: David J. Griffin / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
