Georgia, TCU to meet in 2023 national championship game

By Seth Emerson, Sam Khan Jr. and Jeff Schultz

The Georgia Bulldogs and TCU Horned Frogs will meet in the 2023 national championship game. Here’s what you need to know:

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Backstory

Georgia entered the College Football Playoff as the No. 1 seed. They finished the 2022 regular season with a 13-0 record, winning the SEC.

The Bulldogs are the reigning national champions, having defeated Alabama last season 33-18 to win the program’s third national championship.

Meanwhile, TCU entered the playoff as the No. 3 seed. The Horned Frogs went 12-1 during the regular season, with their only loss coming in the Big 12 Conference championship game to Kansas State.

TCU has won two national championships in program history (1935 and 1938).

The matchup from TCU’s perspective

If the Horned Frogs are tired of hearing about how Michigan would push them around, then they better cover their ears, because there will be plenty more of that ahead of their clash with Georgia. The defending champs are No. 1 and undefeated for a reason: they’re the best team in the country.

But TCU doesn’t need to be the best team in the country, they just need to be the better team on Jan. 9. Ohio State’s 41-point output against the Bulldogs’ vaunted defense is encouraging for the Horned Frogs, especially after they put up 51 against Michigan. The Horned Frogs have the quarterback, skill talent, mentality and — if their Fiesta Bowl win is any indication — the physicality to at least make things interesting against Georgia. — Khan

What would a championship mean for TCU?

It would be the Horned Frogs’ first national championship since 1938. But it would represent so much more. TCU would be the first team in the Playoff era to not have a “Blue Chip Ratio” above 50 percent (only 17 of TCU’s 85 scholarship players are former four- or five-star recruits). TCU plays in a conference, the Big 12, that hadn’t won a Playoff game before this year.

The Horned Frogs aren’t considered a traditional power program, like past Playoff champions Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, LSU or Ohio State. Beating two blue bloods en route to a title — after being picked seventh in their preseason conference media poll — would be one of the most surprising developments in the sport’s modern history. — Khan

The matchup from Georgia’s perspective

This is a bit of a full circle for coach Kirby Smart: His first bowl game as Georgia’s head coach was against TCU, in the 2016 Liberty Bowl, and the Bulldogs had to rally to win that game. Now they will meet the Horned Frogs in the national championship after having to rally to get there.

On paper, Georgia just survived against the tougher team. But Smart will drill into his team that TCU convincingly beat the team that convincingly beat Ohio State. He’ll show them tape of that game, how TCU physically hung with what was supposed to be a gritty Michigan team. He’ll point to how Max Duggan is an excellent dual-threat quarterback, and that TCU is essentially playing with house money: They’ve long since exceeded expectations and will get to Los Angeles with little to no pressure. —Emerson

What would a championship mean for Georgia?

The Bulldogs ended a 41-year drought by winning last year’s championship, in what could have been enough for many in the fan base and at the school. But the people within the football program itself didn’t look at it that way. Now they have a chance not only to repeat but to do something last year’s team didn’t do: Go unbeaten.

It will also be a chance for quarterback Stetson Bennett to put a final, spectacular bow on his improbable career. Bennett’s fourth-quarter heroics to beat Ohio State only added to his legend. But one final chapter awaits. —Emerson

The Bulldogs established themselves as an elite program in 2021. If they win another one and become the first program in a decade to win consecutive titles, Georgia becomes one of the most celebrated programs in college football history, and Smart will be at the center of that. It was long ago when Smart was being lampooned for his inability to defeat Nick Saban and get Georgia over the top to a championship.

But if the Dogs defeat TCU, Smart will join Saban and Dabo Swinney as the only active coaches with multiple titles. He would be compared to some of the great football coaches in history, and with the way he has recruited, it would be surprising if he didn’t win more. — Schultz

On the Georgia-TCU matchup

Georgia just played, by its own standards, an average football game. Its defensive front could not consistently get pressure on Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud and the secondary was exposed, Stroud threw for 348 yards and four touchdowns.

On top of that, Bennett and the offense played poorly in the second and third quarters. I bring this up because the Bulldogs won anyway, and I find it difficult to believe that TCU — which doesn’t nearly have the depth of talent that Ohio State does — will give Georgia as tough of a time.

The Buckeyes were the one team Georgia did not want to play in the postseason, and it nearly lost. The Horned Frogs are a great story and Duggan is a terrific quarterback but the Dogs will correct their mistakes from Saturday and win a second straight national title. — Schultz