LOS ANGELES — If Monday’s national championship game is close between No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 TCU, both teams have shown a resiliency to complete rallies this season borne of the development of cultures focused more on processes than results.
Georgia has rallied two times, including coming back from trailing Ohio State by 14 in the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl, to go undefeated.
“Our team has been built to this point where we are and we’re evolving,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “And you see a different dynamic each and every week.”
TCU staged several rallies, including scoring nine points in the final 2 minutes, 7 seconds, to defeat Baylor, to stay on path to the playoffs.
“And I think the thing with us is don’t get too high or too low,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “If you score a touchdown, great. Get over to the sideline and do it again. And don’t focus on that and don’t waste a lot of energy in it. And same thing if something bad happens; don’t spend a lot of energy worrying about something that’s already happened.”
Both teams have been able to avoid panicking because of a focus on establishing a culture of positivity and continued improvement.
Dykes said his past jobs at Louisiana Tech, Cal and SMU featured teams that got off to good starts, but the pressure from expectations overwhelmed them. When he came to TCU, Dykes said one of his focuses was to make sure that everyone stayed relaxed no matter what was happening. It was especially important because the Horned Frogs had only four players who had competed in a bowl game.
“Our group has had a little bit of a magical ride,” Dykes said Sunday. “And I think the biggest difference is that it’s our first year. We were still trying to get to know the guys. We’re still trying to get a culture established. I just think at the end of the day that’s the most important thing is what is your culture, because it drives the decision a player makes from the time they wake up in the morning to the time they go to bed.”
But the lessons and processes took hold and resulted in helping the team rally from 14 points behind in the fourth quarter to defeat Oklahoma State in double overtime, and rally from 18 points behind in the second quarter to defeat Kansas.
Dykes said his most important rally, the one that helped them reach the CFP National Championship game, was one that wasn’t completed: the overtime loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship game. Dykes said had his team not scored 11 points in the final 7:34 to force the extra period, it probably wouldn’t have been selected for the playoffs.
“And I think that’s the thing that really gets lost, I think, in so many different ways is the importance of culture,” he said. “People talk about it all the time, but what does that mean? And, so, that was our goal from the beginning is, look, let’s not worry about football. Let’s worry about work ethic. Let’s worry about doing things the right way. Let’s worry about responsibility to each other. Let’s worry about all these kind of intangible things, kind of process-driven things. And then we’ll see when we get to spring football where the football goes.”
Smart pointed to how TCU completed its rally against Baylor as an example of “phenomenal” management. It’s also an example of Dykes and his staff getting the players to focus on “the next play,” which has been their mantra this season. TCU trailed 28-20 when quarterback Max Duggan led the team on an 11-play, 90-yard drive to close its gap to 28-26. The defense forced Baylor to punt after three plays. Duggan went to work again, leading the team on a nine-play, 46-yard drive with no timeouts for a game-winning 40-yard field goal.
“So, for me, that was a coach managing the situation the right way,” Smart said. “So I think both teams have grown and gotten a lot better throughout the season, which comes to a culmination now.”
Georgia’s culture continued to develop with Smart’s hire in December 2015. He said an overhaul wasn’t needed. He knew the culture established by previous coach Mark Richt because Smart was once on his staff.
But he made tweaks to things that he believed in and learned from those whom he worked with, including his father and Nick Saban at Alabama, among others, that have helped turn the Bulldogs from a program that seemed constantly on the verge of breaking into the elite, into one that has won 16 consecutive games, is the defending national champ and considered the new standard within college football.
Those tweaks included the hiring of more staff, including quality control assistants and a mental health coach, to help the players in any way needed.
“You need those things to be successful and sustain,” Smart said Sunday. “But at the end of the day, you better have buy-in with your players. And I think the older I’ve gotten, the more I acknowledge the relationship with the player matters much more than maybe the play you call, than maybe the practice habit you create, or anything else. It’s, ‘Will those players play hard for each other, and do they believe in their coaching staff, that their coaching staff cares for them?’ And that allows you to sustain.”
But never, according to Smart, is the focus on winning a championship. Smart said defending the title was never discussed during the offseason after last year’s rally to defeat Alabama in the national championship, or during the fall as the team rolled through its schedule, including rallies against Missouri and the Buckeyes.
The cultures aren’t focused on that.
“We hunt, and for us we want to be staying on the aggressive side of things,” Smart said. “Again, I’ve been a part of so many years where I came off a win, that that wasn’t the narrative. This team is not that team. Next year’s team won’t be this year’s team. So they’re completely independent of each other, just like every game is independent of the previous. We don’t dwell in the rearview mirror. We try to focus on what’s ahead.”
