Final Play UGA Would Have Called in SEC Title Game
Missed it by thaaat much!
Randy Chambers of Bleacher Report:
One of the biggest questions that will surround the 2012 college football season has to do with the SEC Championship Game.
We all know how the game ended.
Georgia rushed a play late in the game instead of clocking the ball and getting off a play that the staff was comfortable with. When the final throw was caught short of the end zone, the clock ran out on the Bulldogs and Alabama won the conference and eventually the crystal football.
Usually these questions are never answered and everything is left to the imagination. What play would have been called if the clock was stopped and the Bulldogs had one final chance to punch the ball in the end zone?
Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo answered that question for all of us, according to Seth Emerson of The Telegraph. It was a play that wasn’t in the playbook at all but was something Nick Saban and his staff saw in previous SEC title games.
We had actually gone back to, I don’t know what it was, it was one of the Florida-Alabama games, where Alabama had given up three red zone scores to Florida. It was a play that Florida had actually ran against Alabama. It was an empty set, and had two primary front-side, and a double-slant backside. It was something from ’08 or ’09 that Tebow had completed against them. Because I remember after that game, Kirby was talking about how, ‘We just couldn’t stop them in the red zone.’ So we just studied that hard.
That’s right. Georgia was going to hit the Tide with the same formula that the Gators used with Tim Tebow.
Bobo is likely referring to the 2008 SEC Championship Game, when Florida scored 31 points and Tebow had three touchdown passes of five yards or less.
Producing 358 total yards in the game, Florida won the showdown by a score of 31-20.
If you are wondering if this play call would have worked, there was a good chance it would have. Although the players are different, the scheme remains very similar under defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, who is close friends with Bobo.
Florida did a terrific job in that game of spreading the defenders out and putting pressure on the cornerbacks.
On the second touchdown pass (3:03) and third touchdown (7:32), Florida came out in an empty set and took advantage of man-coverage. The idea of this play was for quarterback Aaron Murray to make a quick strike and take advantage of a one-on-one matchup.
Either the lengthy Tavarres King or speedy Malcolm Mitchell would have probably been the target on this play, giving Georgia the best chance to score.
Unfortunately, college football will never know if the final play call was good enough to beat Alabama.
