Whatever happens on Sunday, Georgia will have a National Championship winner
The University of Georgia will come out as a winner of a national championship in 2019. Sadly, it’s not THE National Championship, but it’s the National Championship for Pros- the Super Bowl.
On one side is one of the most destructive running backs Georgia football ever saw – despite injuries – in Todd Gurley (St Louis Rams), and the other is the ankle-breaking speedster Sony Michael (New England Patriots).
In their times between the hedges, Gurley had 3,900 total yards and 46 TDs (in just 30 games because of injury and suspension), while Michel had 4,234 yards and 39 TDs.
This season, both posted excellent years.
Gurley posted his second-straight 1,000-yard season this year and his third in four seasons. This time it was 1,251 yards and 17 TDs. He also had 59 receptions for a tidy 580 yards and 4 TDs on top of that.
Bearing in mind New England’s pass-first offense (it helps when Tom Brady’s playing), Michel – in his rookie season – had 931 yards and 6 TDs, but has exploded in the postseason, scoring 5 touchdowns total against Los Angeles and Kansas City, and has gone for 129 and 113 yards respectively. Talk about a player on form. Gurley was dreadful in the game against New Orleans, which included four carries, one fumble and a drop (he still scored a touchdown), but put up 100 yards and a TD against Dallas.
Gurley said about Michel on Tuesday: “I remember when he first came in, he couldn’t run and catch,” Gurley said of Michel’s freshman season at Georgia. “I had to teach him how to do all that stuff….Hopefully everything I taught him, he doesn’t do it and he just plays like he used to play before I taught him everything.” He added – not surprisingly – that he wanted to ‘beat Michel’ in the Super Bowl.
Michel was more deferential, calling Gurley a “big brother”.
If you’re going on form, you’d take Michel to have the bigger game in Atlanta on Sunday – particularly with the fear factor that New England holds under centre.