Stats Crunch: CFP Championship

This Monday, Georgia and TCU will square off in the CFP Championship game. These two teams have only met four times previously, but each one had a special place in Bulldog history.

· 1942 Orange Bowl – Georgia won 40-26: Georgia ended the 1941 season in fashion with its first ever bowl game. The Bulldogs scored first and Ken Keuper scored from two yards out in the first quarter. The Horned Frogs would tie the game, but then it was the Frank Sinkwich show as he ran for 139 yards and a score and threw for 243 yards and three scores – that season he played majority of the season with a broken jaw. The following season, he would win the Heisman and Georgia was National Champions in six notable polls.

· 1980 – Georgia won 34-3: Herschel Walker injured his ankle and only rushed nine times for 69 yards. Barry Young took over on the ground and ran for 83 yards and a touchdown. On defense, Scott Woerner and Freddie Gilbert had big interceptions and the Dawgs would win that game and the rest that season en route to a National Championship.

· 1988 – Georgia won 38-10: Wayne Johnson, Rodney Hampton, and Tim Worley all had rushing touchdowns in the game. Worley’s went for 77 yards and was his longest of his 17 touchdown rushes that season. The Dawgs won that game in Vince Dooley’s last season as head coach.

· 2016 Liberty Bowl – Georgia won 31-23: TCU was also Kirby Smart’s first bowl opponent as head coach. The Bulldogs trailed after the first, second and third quarters, but they bounced back for the victory. Nick Chubb had 142 yards and a score while Sony Michel scored a touchdown rushing the ball and receiving it.

That was then, this is now…

Stetson Bennett keeps plugging away game-by-game. Against Ohio State, he threw for a career-high 398 yards including 190 in the game’s final quarter. Not only is he winning games, he is also climbing the charts in many prestigious season and career stats in Georgia and SEC history.

Bennett added 23 completions against the Buckeyes and now finds himself in the top spot in completions in a single season by a Bulldog with 292. He needs eight more to reach 300, a stat that has been accomplished just 14 times in SEC history.

He also now finds himself exactly 70 yards away from tying Aaron Murray for the most yards passing by a Georgia player in a single season. While, he will not reach the top spot in the SEC, he has a chance to pass some pretty impressive people on the list of most pass yards thrown by a quarterback in his conference in a single season.

He also has a chance to join a select few in most touchdown passes thrown in a season by a Bulldog.

In terms of career records at Georgia, Bennett moved up to the fifth spot in some categories and has a chance to move up on one of them against TCU.

He also ran for a touchdown as well in the Peach Bowl. He has 12 career rushing touchdowns including eight this season. In stats dating back to 1976, only one quarterback has rushed for more in one season.

Kendall Milton also scored on the ground against Ohio State. It was his seventh rushing touchdown of the season. He is one of four Georgia players that have scored at least seven rushing touchdowns this season. In stats dating back to the 1940s, this is the first time Georgia has ever had four players do this. The 2011 LSU Tigers are the only other SEC team to accomplish this feat in the 2000s.

The Bulldogs have 39 rushing touchdowns as a team this season. That ties the 1971 team for the second most in a season while the 2017 team holds the record with 42.

Georgia currently has three players with over 500 yards rushing this season and four with over 250. Check out this graphic on how they have divided the carries this season.

Kenny McIntosh is on top of this list. He is not only a threat to rush the ball, but to catch it as well. His 42 receptions this season and 75 for his career are the most by a Georgia running back in data going back to the 1950s. This season, he has done something only a few in this conference has done over the last two decades.

This season, the Dawgs are tied for fourth in the nation with five players with over 600 scrimmage yards. Only the Bulldog team in 2017 has done that in the 2000s.

While McIntosh is third in receptions this season by a Bulldog, Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey find themselves at one and two respectively. The two also find themselves climbing the chart for most receptions in a season by a Bulldog.

Both Bowers and McConkey could and have gone long in receptions, but Georgia’s true master is Arian Smith. In the Bulldogs’ first offensive play following the timeout, Bennett found a wide-open Smith for a 76-yard touchdown. Smith had a career-high 129 yards on the night. That was the second-highest total by a Georgia player all season (Bowers had 154 vs. Florida). Smith has only 11 career receptions, but the distances have been quite memorable.

Smith is averaging 34.8 yards a reception. Georgia’s record books list Gene Washington as the team record holder for highest receiving yards per reception in a career at 24.6 yards. They do not mention a minimum for receptions – so this could be a record.

AD Mitchell caught his first pass against Ohio State since week two against Samford. He also caught the game-tying touchdown with 54 seconds left. He has played in three bowl games (counting CFP Championships) and has a touchdown reception in each one.

Mostly due to injuries, both Smith (6) and Mitchell (8) currently find themselves below 15 receptions this season. However, for the fourth time in school history, eight Georgia players have caught at least 15 passes in one season. Only Dominick Blaylock finds himself on two lists.

Georgia has scored a total of 67 touchdowns this season. That is tied with the 2014 team for the second highest total ever. The high is 71 set last season (it helps to play 15 games).

Georgia’s defense was up-and-down the entire game against Ohio State. The pass defense allowed four touchdown passes in the game. They have allowed seven in the last two games after allowing eight combined in the team’s first 12 contests. TCU’s Max Duggan is tied for tenth this season with 32 touchdown passes this season. Duggan has also been sacked 23 times this season and 87 times in his career. Against Ohio State, Georgia sacked C.J. Stroud four times. That tied a career-high for the most times Stroud has been sacked in a game. When the Bulldogs face a top-five team in the nation, sacks are a category that Georgia has done well (especially when they win).

To sum up that graphic, Georgia is 6-0 when recording four or more sacks against a top-5 opponent under the current head coach and 1-5 with three or fewer sacks.

Speaking of sacks, the two that Georgia’s offensive line allowed to Ohio State were the first sacks allowed by the Bulldogs since October 15 against Vanderbilt.

Jack Podlesny struggled in the Peach Bowl game going 2-for-4 in field goal attempts. But for the season, he has connected 25 times and that is currently the fourth most in a season by a Georgia kicker. After the crucial extra point against Ohio State, he brought his total points for the season to 140. The 140 broke the school record which he set last season at 137. But where does it rank in SEC history? Check this out –

Don’t forget Brett Thorson. The freshman from Australia has been averaging 44.9 yards a punt this season which is currently the eighth highest in team history.

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Georgia will also look to win its 17th straight game overall. The 17th win would tie a team record originally held from the Chattanooga game in 1945 to the Furman game in 1947.

Counting CFP Championships, Georgia is second all-time with 60 bowl appearances (this will be 61). After the victory against Ohio State and with the USC loss to Tulane, the Bulldogs are now alone in second place with 36 bowl victories. They have also won five bowl games in a row for the first time in school history. Speaking of school history, Georgia has 867 wins all-time. Another victory and they will move to ninth place among all schools breaking a tie with USC and with Tennessee.

The Bulldogs defeated the Buckeyes 42-41 in the Peach Bowl. It was the third time that Georgia has won a bowl game by one point (17-16 in 1973 Peach Bowl against Maryland and 10-9 in the 1984 Cotton Bowl against Texas).

The Dawgs have also won just three times by one point under Kirby Smart (28-27 over Missouri in 2016 and 20-19 over Notre Dame in 2017).

Overall the Bulldogs have won 80 times under Smart, but only twice when allowing more than 30 points. Once was the last game against Ohio State and the other was the 2018 Rose Bowl against Oklahoma – ironically that was the last time Georgia has played in the state of California.