Georgia's had its fair share of 'victory cigar' running backs over the years. You know, the back that teams put in when they're up big late in games. The most infamous, of course, was Brendan Douglas. Mark Richt loved to finish off a game by calling Todd Gurley and Nick Marshall to the side, and letting Douglas loose against a defense that just wanted to go home.
Daijun Edwards filled that role for Kirby Smart prior to this year, eating up yards and clock at the end of blowouts. But this year, in the College Football Playoff National Championship, a 65-7 throttling of TCU, the 'victory cigar' looked just a little different. That's because, instead of a letting a 3-star back like Douglas or Edwards get some playing time (nothing against 3-stars), Georgia plugged in the No. 4 running back from the 2022 class, Branson Robinson.
With Georgia leading 52-7, Robinson checked into the game and promptly picked up where Kenny McIntosh, Kendall Milton, and Edwards had left off. Over a seven-minute stretch, Robinson, a true freshman out of Madison, Mississippi, rushed for 42 yards on 7 carries and punched the ball into the end zone twice. A true freshman. A true freshman that looked like the best player on the field when he checked in.
That's the scary part for college football. A team that lost 15 players to the NFL Draft just repeated as national champions, surpassing their win total from the year prior... and they might be better next year.
Just look at what the freshmen class did in the Championship Game. Branson Robinson was the highlight, but there were plenty of freshmen making plays all over the field in SoFi.
Bear Alexander - playing defensive line, maybe the most difficult spots for a guy who was in high school less than a year ago - was unstoppable on the sport's biggest stage. Alexander sacked TCU quarterback Max Duggan twice, and lived in the Horned Frogs' backfield.
His freshman running-mate, Mykel Williams, was just as disruptive. Williams has shined as the year's gone on, having to step in due to injuries and lack of production. In the National Championship, Williams was a force off the edge, and, along with Alexander, crunched Duggan for an early sack.
Back in the Peach Bowl, in Georgia's most dramatic game of the season, freshman tight end Oscar Delp had to step in for an injured Darnell Washington. Now, Delp isn't the same blocker as the 6-foot-7 Washington, but the fact that offensive coordinator Todd Monken was willing to stick to 12-personnel with Delp playing a big role shows how much faith the staff has in him.
Marvin Jones Jr., Jalon Walker, Darris Smith, Dillon Bell, Brett Thorson. All freshman. All contributing in massive ways on college football's new Death Star.
Oh, and we haven't even mentioned Malaki Starks. The No. 1 athlete in the class of 2022, Starks started the final fourteen games of the season at safety for Georgia. As a freshman, Starks was third in total tackles (68), trailing only Georgia's starting inside linebackers Smael Mondon and Jamon Dumas-Johnson. His play landed him on ESPN's Freshman All-American Team.
As the celebration inside of SoFi Stadium wound down, cameras caught Kirby Smart gesturing to the Georgia faithful. The head coach threw up one finger (for last year's championship), then a second (for this season's), and then he threw up a third. Now, Smart has since said that he was mimicking Michael Jordan's famous ring-counting gesture, but if he was referencing a third title for Georgia in three years, it's hard to find fault in his confidence.
This Georgia team is stacked, and they're not going anywhere.
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