INDIANAPOLIS – It’s finally here. We’re just hours away from kickoff for the College Football Championship game between No. 1 Alabama and the No. 3-ranked Georgia Bulldogs at Lucas Oil Stadium (8 p.m., ESPN).
At this point, we’ve written about all the matchups, told the stories of the individuals who will be competing on college football’s greatest stage and shared the expectations of the fans of the programs. Now we stand prepared to chronicle how it unfolds.
Following are some of the interesting and insightful comments from the players and coaches here in Indy preparing for the game.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart on whether he feels the Bulldog Nation’s impatience to win the first national championship after 41 years
“No, I do not. What I feel is how do we stop Bryce Young and how do we control their front and how do we run the ball, how do we throw the ball with efficiency, how do we convert third downs and stop them in the red area. That’s the furthest from my concern because I don’t all in all control that.”
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett on his confident demeanor
“I’m not as confident in everything I do as I am in football. So, I’d say it comes from work. It’s not an ignorant confidence, like, ‘I believe I can do anything.’ But I believe I can play football really well, and that’s from the work that I’ve spent over these past however many years I’ve been playing football.”
Bennett on his now infamous ‘flip phone’
“They actually still sell them at Verizon stores. Apparently, a lot of old people still use them. I guess in June or July, I had a bunch of school coming up the next semester. I had football, I was, like, ‘I spend an hour on my smartphone a day doing what? Doing nothing, nothing that’s going to help me.’ I don’t even remember what I did. I’ve thought about it for years. And I was like, ‘well, I’ve got all this stuff to do, all this important stuff. Let’s try not to let anything get in the way of that focus and just go get a flip phone.’”
Georgia defensive lineman Jordan Davis on nicknaming Alabama quarterback Bryce Young the ‘Gingerbread Man’
“Bryce is an extremely talented athlete. He’s slippery. We were watching, ‘Hard Knocks’ with the Colts and they were talking about how Kyler Murray was running around like a gingerbread man. That’s what we’ve been calling him all week. Just seeing him run around our defense in the SEC Championship game, you have to tighten up.”
Alabama’s Young on hearing Georgia had nicknamed him the ‘Gingerbread Man’
“I guess it’s a compliment, but that is stuff you can’t control. We know how good that front seven is. We have a ton of respect for them, that entire defense. We understand the challenge that’s at hand. There’s a respect factor there. So, we have respect and it’s just on us to prepare during the week to put ourselves in the best position to be successful and execute when the time comes.”
Georgia tackle Jamaree Salyer on being ‘punched in the mouth’ by Alabama in the SEC Championship game
“It’s interesting to me that everybody says we hadn’t been, quote-unquote, ‘punched in the mouth.’ I think every Saturday you line up in the SEC everybody’s throwing punches. You line up in those man fronts and you turn around hand the ball off and it’s a bloodbath out there pretty much every Saturday, just like it is on their side. I think it’s interesting everybody makes that narrative. But they played a better game than us; they out-executed us on that given Saturday; they had a better game plan. I think that’s what it came down to.”
Alabama running back Brian Robinson and facing Georgia again for the title
“It’s nothing I’ve not seen before. I’ve seen this team. I’ve seen this defense before. Also, with these lights shining bright, I’ve also been under these lights before multiple times. So, I have experience playing games like this under these lights and against teams like Georgia. And with me already seeing Georgia, playing them one time this season, I kind of know what to expect from them. I know what kind of personnel to expect from them.”
Georgia’s Davis on leaving a note in his locker for the next player to wear No. 99
“I can’t reveal all the details. I would say it’s just a little memo. It was just my name, a little message and the years I played and in a hiding spot, so they have to find it. But when they do, they’ll have a little message. It was moreso for me, so when I come back I can just look at it and say, ‘yeah, that was my locker.’ If I have kids in the future or bring my brothers or something like that.”
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