William Poole shadowed Alabama's Slade Bolden as he moved from one side of the field to the other.

Poole and the Bulldogs had Alabama in a third-and-12 situation in January's national championship game. Georgia called a blitz coverage, leaving Poole to maintain inside leverage against Bolden.

Poole wound up delivering one of the biggest plays of the game, stopping the Tide with a pass break up and forcing a punt. It was a moment of vindication.

"I kind of got up screaming, had to let everything out," Poole said. "That was something I was waiting for for a long time."

Poole's career to that point in Athens had mostly been spent as a reserve defensive back. Heading into the 2021 season, he had appeared in 22 games over four years in Athens.

At times, Poole considered leaving Georgia for greener pastures. The coaches kept on him to help keep him in red and black.

"Coaches always stayed on me, they always made sure in practice that I was always doing my best and keeping my best effort," Poole said. "They always told me my time is going to come eventually."

That time came in the week leading up to last season's SEC Championship Game against Alabama. Poole received plenty of reps leading up to that contest.

The night before the game, the coaches told Poole he would be starting at star against the Crimson Tide. That performance didn't go well, as the Georgia secondary got torched as Alabama rolled to a victory.

The coaching staff emphasized to Poole he hadn't blown his shot yet. He went back to the drawing board to work on the mistakes he made.

"After that, the whole team was kind of hungry," Poole said. "I was hungry for myself because I didn’t have the best game, I thought. I knew what I was capable of doing, so going into the next following weeks, I just kind of locked in and just trusted my training."

That training helped Poole come up big in the title game, notching four tackles and two pass breakups.

After being thrown into the fire in the biggest games of the year, Poole returns for his final season in Athens a new player.

"Going off from last year, I just have supreme confidence because I feel like my teammates, they have my back," Poole said. "I never doubted them having my back, but after last year, it kind of felt like an extra boost. It was something that I needed in order to get myself ready for this year."