2023 CFP National Championship Full Game Preview
- Date: Monday, Jan. 9, 2023
- Kick-off: 7:30 E.T.
- Stadium: So-Fi Stadium, Inglewood, California
- How To Watch: ESPN
- Record: Georgia (14-0) vs. TCU (13-1)
After arguably the best College Football season in quite some time, it all comes down to Monday night. Where one champion will be crowned. Will it be the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs? Will the TCU Horned Frogs finish off their cinderella season with a championship to top it off? There’s a lot on the line as the College Football season comes to an end with the 2023 CFP National Championship Monday.
TCU has the chance to become the first BIG-12 College Football champion since the Playoff era started in 2014. Since then there have only been six teams to make the championship game: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, and Oregon. Texas Christian University becomes the seventh to join that list. Will they spoil the back-to-back that Georgia is looking to complete?
Georgia is looking to become the first back-to-back national champion in the CFP Playoff era. They’d also be the first to win back-to-back title games since Alabama in 2011-12. The Bulldogs may have lost Dan Lanning at the beginning of the season, but they reloaded, beat their old DC in week one, and have looked dominant all year long. With a win, Coach Kirby Smart could cement his legacy as one of the best coaches in college football history.
TCU Horned Frogs
Nobody expected the Horned Frogs to be on the biggest stage when all was said and done, but here they are. Like in many of their games this season TCU is coming in as the underdog, with the odds sitting at +12.5 in favor of Georgia. Though, Odds have meant nothing to Sonny Dykes and his program this season. They’ve already upset Michigan this playoff season and punched their ticket to the championship game.
Heiman Finalist Max Duggan has had this offense humming all season long. The Horned Frogs finished the season with the eighth-ranked scoring offense this season with 41.1 points per game. They also ranked 13th with total offensive yards at 474.1 per game. With one of the best receivers in college football, Quentin Johnson, this offense may give Georgia a run for its money offensively.
History has been kind to TCU, but not to underdogs in a title game. The Horned Frogs are 5-1 in their last six bowl games, 7-2 in their last nine, and 12-3 in their last 15 dating back to 2001. This team knows how to step up their game come bowl season. Their three losses since 2001 have all come by seven points or fewer. Now, they’re looking for the one thing that has eluded them since 1938, a national championship.
Georgia Bulldogs
As mentioned above, the Bulldogs are coming in as heavy favorites and have the team to back that up. Smart has a Heisman candidate of his own in Stetson Bennett. They have a loaded backfield, a Sophomore star at TE in Brock Bowers, and a potential first-round pick in at Tackle with Broderick Jones. This offense can compete, there’s no doubt about it.
However, the offense isn’t the strong point of this team. The defense is. Last year, Georgia had five-first round defensive selections. That group was headlined by No. 1 overall Travon Walker. They lost their defensive coordinator, lost eight key starters, but still managed to retool and continue playing at an extreme level. This year’s Georgia defense ranks second in run defense with 80 yards per game given up and 11th in total defense, allowing 304.6 yards per game as a whole.
With a win, Georgia might establish themselves as a college football dynasty with back-to-back championships headed to Athens.
When all is said and done, we should be in store for a treat. Be sure to follow us on Twitter where we will have highlights of the game and on Youtube as we will have more content on the 2023 CFP National Championship in the coming days.