2017: A Great Year With a Disappointing Finish

I have got to say that 2017 has been a great year of college football.  It saw the Knights of UCF forge an incredible undefeated season, winning the American Conference Championship Game, and securing a spot in
 the Peach Bowl where they faced Auburn.  Even more spectacularly, UCF defeated Auburn in a monumental upset with the help of their head coach Scott Frost, who displayed an all too rare show of integrity by coaching the Knights despite his future plans to coach Nebraska.  

But sadly, the Crimson Tide had to inject their all too predictable dominance into the tail end of the season.  Their opponents in the National Championship Game were the fellow SEC member Georgia Bulldogs.  Georgia played a marvelous 1st half, taking a 13-0 lead into the locker room thanks to a TD drive just before halftime.  

Then the ever wily Nick Saban opted to put backup Tua Tagovailoa, a true freshman, into the game.  I have to get Tagovailoa props for painting two crosses on his face with eye black to showcase who the glory really belongs to.  The young gunslinger played exceptionally well, passing for 2 touchdowns and leading his team to 20 points in the 2nd half.  Meanwhile, the Bulldogs only managed a single great offensive play after the half, an 80 yard touchdown strike from quarterback Jake Fromm to speedster Mecole Hardman.  

The game went to overtime due to egregious missed field goal by Alabama kicker Andy Pappanastos on the last play of regulation.   On Georgia's possession in overtime kicker Rodrigo Blankenship bailed out the struggling Bulldogs offense with a perfect 51 yard field goal. But an inexcusable blown coverage by the Georgia secondary allowed Tagovailoa to complete his third touchdown pass of the day to end the game in head-scrathing fashion.  

Yet again, Alabama has achieved another championship that stuffs their trophy case and puffs them up with even more pride.  I say that because quite a few times during the game the Alabama players pushed Georgia players around unnecessarily, acting like they were the kings of college football and no one had any right to defeat them. One Alabama player even shoved the head of the Georgia quarterback, an incredibly immature action which should have been called a personal foul.  I can only hope that next year will end on a better note.

This is Jonathan Fry, signing off for this year.