2021 National Championship (1)
(Chris Fowler) – ESPN Play-by-Play
"We're here in Indianapolis, where the weather alone is enough to freeze you to the bone. Two storied Southern powerhouses of college football — rivals as deep and bitter as their long, long histories. This is the NCAA Football Playoff, the National Championship Game presented by AT&T. The two teams facing off today are SEC rivals: Georgia and Alabama. Both squads have held onto the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the national rankings all season long."
"In their most recent meetings, it was Alabama who got the last laugh first. Back in 2018, in Kirby Smart's first National Championship as a head coach, DeVonta Smith hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa, and Alabama took the title."
"And then the very next year. The SEC Championship Game. Same venue, deadlocked at 28-28. With one minute left in the fourth quarter, Jalen Hurts' 15-yard rushing touchdown tore the hearts out of Georgia in the cruelest way imaginable."
"But then came 2021. Starting with the season that COVID-19 threw the whole world into chaos, Georgia's counterattack began. The 2021 SEC Championship Game. The 2021 National Championship Game. The 2022 SEC Championship Game. Three separate times, Georgia came out on top, each victory landing a heavy blow to Alabama's standing."
"Welcome, everyone! I'm Chris Fowler, joined alongside Kirk Herbstreit. Over the past thirteen years, Alabama has claimed six national titles, building a true dynasty in college football. But right now, it is Georgia that poses the greatest threat to Alabama and to Nick Saban's success. Georgia, in particular, has not lost a single game since last year."
(Kirk Herbstreit) – ESPN Analyst
"These are the two best teams in college football today. But in my view, the step up Georgia has shown since last year is the single biggest reason they've finally overtaken Alabama. Which is exactly why this one's going to be a war. Alabama and Nick Saban are not about to sit back and watch their era fade away like this."
(Chris Fowler)
"Kirk, as you know, both teams are armed with elite quarterbacks. First, we can't go without mentioning Dwayne Moi Stone. For the second straight year, he's the Heisman Trophy winner. In the entire history of college football, only two players have ever won it in back-to-back seasons: Archie Griffin and Dwayne Moi Stone. On top of that, he's put up a veritably monstrous season — 5,660 yards and 61 touchdowns to date. His 79.0% completion rate and 226.5 passer rating both stand as the all-time No. 1 marks in D1 FBS history."
(Kirk Herbstreit)
"The phrase Born Natural Quarterback has never fit anyone better than it fits this kid. Georgia certainly has good receivers, sure — but it's this kid who makes them look like the best unit in the nation. Brock Bowers, Ladd McConkey, AD Mitchell — all of them are freshmen, and yet every one of them is already sitting in the upper ranks of the receiving record books."
"He's running Todd Monken's offense — Monken took over as Georgia's offensive coordinator last season — at one hundred percent execution, and his audibles at the line have been the talk of the sport all year long."
(Chris Fowler)
"Alabama has a fine quarterback of their own. Bryce Young, runner-up in the Heisman voting. Even after losing players like Mac Jones, Najee Harris, and DeVonta Smith to the NFL, Alabama has maintained a potent offense — and that is entirely thanks to this young man's ability."
#. January 9, 2022
#-1. Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
#-2. Lucas Oil Stadium
00 – 00 ALABAMA (2)
00 – 00 GEORGIA (1)
What we choose to see becomes our reality.
What we believe becomes our life.
Engraving the words Coach had spoken before we took the field deep into my chest, I knelt on one knee in the end zone and prayed for my family back in Hawaii — prayed for their blessing over today's game.
It's funny. There was a time I believed in God less than anyone alive, but after living in Hawaii with my new family, even making the sign of the cross had become second nature.
I still don't believe in God.
But it puts the heart a little more at ease.
"Whoo! Whoo!"
When the prayer was done, I blew one deep breath into each clenched fist, clapped my hands together hard, and raised my voice.
"LET'S GO!!!"
The fans seated close by roared back at me, and I spun around and sprinted off to join my teammates. I grabbed a ball and started trading passes nearby with Jackson Muschamp, our backup quarterback.
Would you remember that when we traveled to South Carolina last year, I actually met his father?
Jackson's dad, Will Muschamp, currently serves as the team's Special Teams Coordinator.
He was originally brought on as a defensive analyst — something of a special director who advised on the team's overall operation — but when Coach Scott Cochran stepped away for health reasons, Muschamp slid into the vacated seat.
The amusing part is that Coach Cochran has been back since the SEC Championship Game. He's only staying through this National Championship, and he says he plans to rest again next year.
Apparently, Coach — who goes way back with Alabama — negotiated with the school to have his entire salary through next year fully guaranteed, and told us that with that security in place, he could drop in and lend a hand before any big game whenever he pleased.
It's a little high-handed, but he's such an elite coach that even a short stint with the team is a massive boost.
"Your arm looks good today."
"You think? Feels the same as always to me."
"No, seriously! There's real zip on your passes."
"That's good to hear. Reliable, right?"
"Who do you think has caught more of your passes since last year — all the receivers combined, or me? I'd say it's pretty close."
"Haha. Fair point."
Tap.
This is what quarterbacks with good social instincts generally look like.
In high school and college, you get guys who aren't nearly talented enough to move on to the next level, so they keep playing football on the side to position themselves for careers as coaches or in a pro team's front office.
Naturally, they're walk-ons without scholarships, but if they dedicate a year or so and prove their diligence, tuition waivers often kick in from their sophomore year onward.
Jackson was exactly that case. The plan was for him to build experience through college and then join Coach's staff afterward.
No guarantees of success.
But he'd make it that far.
He's got a great personality and he works relentlessly hard.
Tap.
"Moi!"
"I'm heading over!"
"Alright."
After one more pass, I ran toward Coach.
"How's the shoulder?"
"Jittery as a fresh-caught fish, Coach."
"Hehe. Now that's a good expression."
"Yes, sir. Couldn't be better."
"That's the spirit. Now listen up."
Coach walked me through every detail we'd discussed in preparation for today's game, one more time, with precision.
It felt like a review session — it let me run through the plays in my head again, and it would help whenever I hit a wall on the field and needed to shift to Plan B or some other approach.
"Got it?"
"One hundred twenty percent, Coach."
"Good. Now go save that shoulder."
As I started making my way to my position, four of our teammates moved to midfield for the coin toss.
And Molly McGrath came over to find Coach.
Before long, Duane Heydt — the head referee from the ACC — delivered his voice to the entire stadium through the microphone.
It went more or less like this.
Who he was.
What an honor it was to officiate a game like this.
Heads looked like this, tails looked like that.
We called tails and won the toss, and just as we'd agreed beforehand, we declared that we'd take the ball to open the second half.
Defense first.
I guess I can sit back a little.
Back at the bench, I pulled out my tablet and skimmed quickly through footage of Alabama's most recent game.
This kind of thing helps with image-building.
And every scrap of extra information counts.
Even before kickoff, the two marching bands on either side were cranking out dueling fight songs, the crowd's roar swirling over them, and the stadium dissolved into glorious chaos.
Add the two hundred-plus players and coaches lining both sidelines, plus the forty-plus staff needed just to run the game itself, and the pandemonium only thickens.
What sport on earth keeps over two hundred players and coaches inside its stadium?
This spectacle exists in exactly one place: a football field.
No sport in the world burns hotter than this.
Soccer? The World Cup? The Champions League?
I watched a few of those finals in my past life, and while they were impressive, they couldn't touch a football stadium packed with ninety to a hundred thousand.
This place only seats a mere seventy thousand, mind you.
And yet the atmosphere the crowd generates burns as hot as a hundred-thousand-seat coliseum.
Into that cauldron, the kicked ball soared through the air.
And Alabama called for a fair catch.
Starting from their own 25-yard line.
The game clock hadn't even started moving yet.
#. Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
#-1. Chris Ballard's House
The Indianapolis Colts, whose home stadium was currently hosting the College Football National Championship, had established themselves as an NFL powerhouse alongside Peyton Manning.
The franchise's negative image — stained by its history as the original practitioner of the Midnight Move — was diluted considerably during the Manning years as well.
Setting aside 1998, when Peyton Manning arrived, and 2001, the Colts posted ten or more wins and a playoff berth every single year.
But after signing that massive long-term contract, Manning's chronic neck injury worsened, and when he sat out the entire 2011 season, Indianapolis stumbled to a miserable 2-14.
And as fate would have it, that very year's draft class had a generational quarterback.
Andrew Luck.
Out of Stanford, Luck was being hailed as the second coming of Peyton Manning, and the Colts — drowning in countless trade offers — agonized over the decision before choosing to keep their pick.
That was because the owner sided with the argument that rather than leaning on a man in his late thirties who'd already survived two major surgeries, they should hand the reins to Andrew Luck and rebuild the team anew.
And so Peyton Manning left the Colts the following year, and in his first season Luck led the team to 11 wins and 5 losses.
But Luck never became the second Peyton Manning everyone had hoped for, and layered on top of that were the owner's heavy-handed blunders and a general manager lacking in managerial acumen. The team swung wildly between extremes.
Then, in the 2020 offseason, Andrew Luck — who hadn't seen the field since 2018 — informed the team he was retiring due to injury.
Just like that, the starting quarterback was gone.
Still, the Colts signed veteran quarterback Philip Rivers in free agency and made the playoffs.
Granted, they'd feasted on free wins because a division rival had openly declared a tank for Trevor Lawrence — but in terms of preserving the image of a strong franchise, it was a success.
And then, another retirement announcement.
Philip Rivers, too, declared he wouldn't play in the NFL any longer, citing his age. Indianapolis briefly toyed with the idea of tanking, then traded for Carson Wentz out of Philadelphia instead.
And thanks to running back Jonathan Taylor's heroics, the Colts find themselves knocking on the playoff door again this year.
However.
"…"
The name of the man watching the National Championship Game from his study is Chris Ballard.
He currently serves as general manager of the Indianapolis Colts, and he's earned his standing by producing results even under brutal conditions — four straight years of patchwork quarterback rotations caused by injuries.
But the gums that held on by a thread are now on the verge of collapse, and internally, the organization has already decided it cannot move forward with Carson Wentz.
Which means the Colts' starting quarterback will change again next year.
For the fifth consecutive season, no less.
Then the broadcasters' voices drifted into Chris Ballard's ears.
(Chris Fowler)
"Five minutes, five seconds. Fifty yards gained. And a three-point field goal. Alabama came up short of a touchdown on their opening drive of this National Championship, but they put points on the board all the same. When you consider just how monstrous Georgia's defense has been, you'd have to say Bryce Young did himself proud out there."
(Kirk Herbstreit)
"Exactly right. And let me say it again — Bryce Young is one heck of a quarterback in his own right."
Among the NFL franchises currently sitting in the upper-middle tier or better, the Indianapolis Colts are the team most capable of collapsing their record next year.
The method was simple.
Ship out Carson Wentz.
He couldn't claw back the first-round draft pick they'd surrendered to acquire a quarterback who turned out to be this much of a mess, but he could still secure some measure of future assets.
Besides, with the roster aging, simply fielding a below-average quarterback would send the record into freefall all on its own.
With luck, they could even land the No. 1 overall pick and draft Dwayne Moi Stone — but Chris Ballard was watching something that ninety percent of NFL general managers had failed to notice.
The fact that the class of quarterbacks expected to enter — or eligible for — the 2023 NFL Draft was the strongest of the past decade.
Starting with Bryce Young, who had just somehow carved up Georgia's ferocious defense, there was C.J. Stroud out of Ohio State, and Will Levis, who had led Kentucky to a 10-3 record.
In other words, 2023 was the year you could swing for a home run even if you couldn't land a grand slam — which made tanking all the more imperative.
This was a chance handed down from heaven.
Yes, the NFL had announced it would rigorously investigate any intentional losses next season — but that only applied to inexplicable situations arising mid-game. Nobody could stop a team from simply fielding a weaker roster.
Pleased by Bryce Young's play a moment ago, Chris Ballard pictured the Alabama quarterback playing in Indianapolis.
Unlike Dwayne Moi Stone, whose image stubbornly refused to come into focus for him, Bryce Young looked natural in the Colts' white uniform.
Time to press the reset button,
Just like that, the Indianapolis Colts resolved to commit themselves to a full rebuild — playoffs or no playoffs this season.
But what set them apart from the other teams was this: they would not be chanting Tank For Moi. They would be chanting Tank For 2023 Class QB.
Would that distinction become a variable?
No one knew the answer to that. Not yet.
(Chris Fowler)
"Red zone. Third-and-seven, Georgia. James Cook runs the jet sweep. Moi — in the pocket — the ball is away — and CAUGHT!! GEORGE PICKENS!! Georgia's wide receiver, back after a long layoff with injury, finds the end zone in the National Championship Game!!"
03 – 03 ALABAMA (2)
06 – 06 GEORGIA (1)
A little while ago, I'd been in a foul mood.
Things just weren't going smoothly.
And the Alabama boys were being insufferably cocky, too.
On our first offensive drive — which started after we'd conceded the opening field goal — an illegal block penalty and a dropped catch by Ladd ended things before they'd even begun, and we handed the ball right back over.
Then the defense got it back for us in just three minutes, and the moment we took the field, the crimson boys kept picking fights.
Steel yourselves, boys, or so it went.
And that's the polite version.
Properly riled up, I gritted my teeth and attacked this drive with everything I had. The possession that started at our own 13 with 4:16 on the clock became a touchdown in 3 minutes and 59 seconds.
Seven plays.
Two rushes.
One scramble by yours truly.
The remaining four were passes, and while one of them failed, at the end of the day I won.
"Keep yapping!"
"Oh, you will!"
"Yeah, that's what I thought! And here's the thing — every time you yappers open your mouths, I'm gonna drop another touchdown. So by all means, keep flapping those gums!"
After trading trash talk with Alabama's No. 10, Henry To'oTo'o, I turned and sprinted toward the sideline.
The guy probably thought he'd done a great job, getting inside the quarterback's head like that. Clearly, he hadn't studied his Michael Jordan or LeBron James history.
If I managed to score a few more touchdowns after this, I planned to tell him exactly this:
It's your fault.
Or maybe:
Karma's a bitch.
Either way, it would be deeply satisfying — and for the sake of that feeling alone, I had to keep my focus locked in.
"Hey! Hey!!"
"?"
"Over here!"
Coach, who'd watched me jawing at Henry To'oTo'o, pulled me aside.
"What was that about?"
"I'm fine, Coach."
"Don't do it. Understood?"
"But, Coach. He asked after my dead puppy. Said he'd send me over to Ash's side soon. That was crossing the line. You don't think so?"
"It's all mind games."
Of course I know that.
I know it's psychological warfare.
But I didn't take the bait.
I'm simply using it.
The week after the SEC Championship, Ash — the senior dog my grandparents had adopted — crossed the rainbow bridge.
I'd only met him a handful of times, but I'd kept up with him through video calls with Grandma and through my aunt's social media all the same.
Ash was family, and the Stones said their farewells the Stone way. And that miserable To'oTo'o stooped to using an animal as ammunition.
All I did was climb on board.
Because when someone hands you a reason for revenge,
that itself is motivation.
"I'm perfectly level-headed right now, Coach. Want to feel my forehead?"
"I know. I know all of it. Still — calm down."
"Yes, sir."
"Good. That pass earlier was beautiful."
After a firm slap on the butt from Coach, I turned around and ran into George, fresh off the touchdown.
"You SEE that catch?!"
"I saw you drop passes before. This I just saw caught."
"Kukukuku. Dynamic Duo, dude!"
"Hell yeah!"
One thing was certain: Alabama had clearly prepared harder than before, which was exactly why the first quarter had ground along so tight.
Failing to score on the opening drive of a game was probably a first for us — I'd have to verify that later.
Podlesny's kick sailed through the uprights,
and we were up by seven.
Seventeen seconds remained in the first quarter.
The kickoff special teams unit was jogging onto the field.