Tag: national championship game

Notre Dame Football: 5 Ways for Irish to Close National Championship Gap

How does Notre Dame truly return to glory and raise another national championship trophy?

Notre Dame football has been one of the best football programs nationally since 2017.  In six of those seven years, the Irish have won 10 or more games, they’ve twice gone to the College Football Playoff, and their recruiting has seen a ratings uptick since [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] was hired.

Yet Notre Dame was out of the College Football Playoff hunt by early October this year.  A home loss to Ohio State coupled with a destruction at the hands of Louisville did them in before having a third loss at Clemson later in the year.

So as good as Notre Dame has been there is still a gap to close.  How close are Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish to closing that and getting Notre Dame to play in a national championship game?

Let’s examine…

Saints fans should prepare for rain inside Chargers’ open-air SoFi Stadium

Saints fans shouldn’t forget about Hurricane Hilary’s rain Just because the Chargers play inside SoFi Stadium. The venue has dealt with leaks and lightning delays before:

The NFL is determined to see the New Orleans Saints kick off their second preseason game with the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Sunday night whether Hurricane Hilary hits the area or not. Orange County is under the first tropical storm warning — not the first this year, but the first ever — but the league office has determined the show must go on.

So kickoff is still scheduled for 6 pm. CT/4 p.m. PT, right around the time bands of tropical wind and rain are forecast to approach one of America’s largest cities. And any fans looking to brave the elements so they can see their team play an exhibition game should take precautions for the weather while at their seats.

Pack a poncho, wear good shoes, and try to practice patience. Don’t assume you’ll be high and dry just because SoFi Stadium has a dome. The venue does not have complete walls encircling the field, stands, and concourse (so that the normally-pristine Los Angeles climate can breeze through) but that exposure has led to rain pouring inside before. Past games have dealt with lightning delays, interior flooding, and injuries from people slipping and falling while just trying to make their way to their seats. Another factor to consider is how the precipitation may impact the field’s artificial Matrix Turf playing surface.

Take a look for yourself at the elements’ intrusion to this year’s NCAA national championship game between Georgia and TCU:

49ers select TCU LB Dee Winters with No. 216 pick

The #49ers selected TCU linebacker Dee Winters with their 216th overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft on Saturday

The San Francisco 49ers made a bold move with the 216th pick in the 2023 NFL draft, selecting Texas Christian University linebacker Dee Winters in the sixth round. Winters proved himself to be an impactful starter for the Horned Frogs in the team’s meteoric rise in the college football rankings last season and should be able to work himself into a roster spot in 2023.

Winters stands just under six feet tall and has enough speed to compensate for his lack of height. He is a rangy, rugged linebacker with the ability to wrap up even the most elusive ball carriers in space, especially in key situations.

Scouts value the experience that players like Winters bring to the table, especially at this stage in the draft process. He will likely need time to adjust to the speed of the NFL game, but as a late-round pick, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Watch for this established stud to make waves in training camp and quickly become a fan-favorite in the bay area.

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LSU’s national championship game set viewing records

The growth of the sport is undeniable, and the Tigers are at the forefront of it.

When LSU won its first women’s basketball national championship on Sunday afternoon, it did so in front of a record-setting national television audience.

With the game televised on ABC for the first time, a stunning 9.9 million people tuned in across all platforms. That’s a 103% increase from a year ago and shatters the previous viewing record.

For context, the 4.5 million people that watched last year’s title game was the most in two decades.

It’s clear that the sport is growing, and LSU is at the center of it as the title-winning team with some of the best personalities — and athletes — in the sport.

Just to put that figure in perspective, here are some recent events that the viewership exceeded.

With the WNBA’s restrictive draft rules meaning players like [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] and Caitlin Clark are likely to come back next season, this sport isn’t going anywhere. And neither, it seems, are the Tigers.

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College Football Power Rankings after CFP Championship Game and Bowl Season

Final power rankings for the 2022 season after Georgia throttled TCU in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

The Georgia Bulldogs capped an incredible 15-0 season with a 62-7 thumping of the TCU Horned Frogs to become the national champions for the second straight season. It was a dominating performance for Kirby Smart’s crew that showed why Georgia is the best program in college football.

Though the Alabama Crimson Tide has had a longer track record of success over the last decade and a half, the Georgia Bulldogs have done something no program has done in the College Football Playoff era: win back-to-back championships.

It’s a remarkable feat considering Stetson Bennett was a walk-on, and the Bulldogs lost five defensive starters to the NFL draft. Smart and his staff have built a juggernaut in Athens, and there’s no indication it will slow  anytime soon as they continue to pull in top recruiting classes annually.

For the final time in the 2022 season, here are our post-bowl season power rankings.

Kirby Smart said ‘everyone’ doubted Georgia this year and college football fans weren’t having it

Did everyone doubt Georgia, Kirby? Did they REALLY?

After a 15-0 season and a second-straight national title where they gave several players curtain calls in the National Championship Game, there’s no doubt the Georgia Bulldogs were the best team in college football this year. Save for a playoff scare from Ohio State, the Bulldogs were largely unchallenged en route to their 65-7 romp over the TCU Horned Frogs on Monday night.

That made one part of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart’s postgame victory interview a bit peculiar. While waxing poetic about what his talented team accomplished, Smart used the “everyone doubted us” cliche to describe his players’ journey back to the pinnacle of college football.

Hmm, I don’t know about that, Kirby!

In fairness to Smart, there probably was a little skepticism about where the Bulldogs stood at the start of the season. They lost a bunch of players to the NFL and had to pick up the pieces from a historic winning defense last year. A slight dropoff wouldn’t have been too surprising. That said, this was clearly the most talented roster from top to bottom in the sport, and it’s a little ludicrous to hear the leader say people cast doubt on his squad’s pedigree.

People probably did doubt Georgia for a small fraction of time. Then they saw they were a dominant buzzsaw and wised up. This sort of assertion holds no weight with me, Mr. Smart.

17 best photos of Georgia football celebrating its dominant 2022-23 College Football Playoff National Championship

The Bulldogs have gone back-to-back as college football champions!

There was no doubt about it for the Georgia Bulldogs.

On Monday, Georgia won back-to-back College Football Playoff National Championships after a brutally dominant 65-7 victory over the TCU Horned Frogs. The Bulldogs never trailed after scoring a touchdown on its opening drive four minutes into the game after a crisp five-play, 57-yard drive.

Though the lopsided score might have been a bore for casual college football fans, the Georgia faithful were partying all night, even trolling TCU for good measure with the game well in hand. Stetson Bennett had himself a night at quarterback, finishing 18-for-25 with 304 passing yards, four touchdowns, and two rushing touchdowns. Head coach Kirby Smart now has his second national championship after steering Georgia to an undefeated 15-0 season.

Here are the 17 best photos from Georgia’s on field celebrations after their dominant College Football Playoff National Championship victory.

Georgia humiliated TCU so much, they turned the national championship into Senior Night

Win a title by almost 60 points, and EVERYONE gets a curtain call.

To even say Georgia beat the brakes off of TCU in the 2023 national championship game would probably be an understatement. In winning 65-7 — a 58-point margin — the Bulldogs enjoyed the largest win in a bowl game in college football history.

At a certain point, with Georgia absolutely cruising through most of the night, head coach Kirby Smart decided to start taking some of his key starters out of the game with the outcome already decided. In fact, if you were to take a closer look, why it’s almost as if the Bulldogs transformed the pinnacle of college football into a de facto Senior Night. Because they did!

There was Stetson Bennett with about 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter:

Then most of Georgia’s defensive leaders, like Jalen Carter, exited with a little over nine minutes to go for their own curtain call:

That’s right. Georgia was so dominant to repeat as champions; they got to say goodbye to almost all of their critical departing players with just about two-thirds of the fourth quarter remaining. Talk about getting your flowers at the expense of another helpless opponent — in this case, TCU.

Stephen A. Smith predicts that TCU will win the national championship

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith predicts that TCU will upset Georgia in the national championship game

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith predicts the TCU Horned Frogs will defeat the Georgia Bulldogs in the national championship game. Smith was not a believer in TCU until the Horned Frogs shocked Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

If TCU wins the national championship, the Horned Frogs would be one of the best underdog stories ever. Stephen A. Smith thinks Georgia has the better team, but he has a feeling TCU will pull off the upset.

Stephen A. Smith explained his upset pick on ESPN:

Quarterback Max Duggan and TCU have been a popular upset pick entering the national championship game. However, TCU will have to win the turnover battle in order to have a good chance of upsetting the defending national champions.

Stephen A. Smith’s ESPN counterpart, Paul Finebaum, picked the Georgia Bulldogs to win the national championship. Finebaum thinks it is tough to repeat, but that the Bulldogs have the edge thanks to a superior defense.

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5 TCU players to watch in the national championship

Who are five TCU players every Georgia fan should know about entering the national championship game?

The TCU Horned Frogs are the story of the 2022-2023 college football season. TCU defeated Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinals to advance to face Georgia in the national championship game.

The Horned Frogs have a great deal of talent and a dangerous passing game. They tend to play high-scoring affairs and have come back from a large deficit several times this season.

TCU is led by quarterback Max Duggan. The Horned Frogs have the No. 5 scoring offense in the country and average 41.1 points per game. TCU does a good job of taking care of the football and has a plus-nine turnover margin.

Who are five TCU players Georgia fans should know about entering the national championship game?