There are a lot of people who deserve credit for getting the Georgia Bulldogs all the way to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game this season.
You can begin by crediting second-year head coach Kirby Smart. Smart was hired by Georgia back in December 2015 after spending nearly a decade working under Nick Saban at Alabama, which is the team Georgia will square off against during the CFP title game on Monday night. And since arriving at his new gig, Smart has worked tirelessly to overhaul the football program and to get rid of the—in his words—"complacency" that existed before he took over.
You can also give some of the credit to freshman quarterback Jake Fromm. The Georgia-born quarterback started the 2017-18 college football season as the backup to Jacob Eason, only to take over the reins of the Bulldogs team during the very first game of the season after Eason went down with an injury. Since then, the 19-year-old QB has solidified himself as one of the most promising young gunslingers in all of college football and won the SEC Freshman of the Year award.
Georgia’s senior running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel deserve a slice of the credit, too. Outside of providing the kind of senior leadership you need on a title team, Chubb and Michel have also run all over their opponents this season, just like they have for their entire careers. In Georgia’s epic Rose Bowl win over Oklahoma, Chubb and Michel combined for 326 rushing yards total, which helped them surpass Eric Dickerson and Craig James and set a new FBS record by putting up a combined 8,259 career rushing yards.
And of course, the Georgia team wouldn’t be where it is today without its defense. While the Georgia D didn’t exactly put up its best showing of the season against Oklahoma when it gave up 48 points in the Rose Bowl, it slowed Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield down just enough in the second half to eek out an overtime win. The Georgia defense also finished with the sixth-ranked defense in the entire nation during the regular season and played a big role in the team’s run to the SEC Championship in early December.
But if we’re being honest here, then we all know who really deserves the majority of the credit for Georgia’s success this season, right? It’s Kirby SmartJake FrommNick ChubbSonny MichelGeorgia’s defenseQuavo!
Let us explain.
Quavo was born and raised in Georgia, and all indications are that he has been a Georgia Bulldog supporter for most of his life. Yes, he once took part in a Michigan pep rally alongside his fellow Migos members, and yes, he gave props to Ohio State at one point during this college football season. But Quavo has, for the most part, stayed loyal to Georgia this season, and he has actually been driving the Georgia bandwagon since all the way back in August.
It all started when Quavo sent out this tweet late in the summer asking for information on the Georgia team. Even though Georgia was still a couple weeks away from their season-opening game against Appalachian State, Quavo was clearly very excited for the season to start.
The tweet earned Quavo responses from Smart, Michel, and several other Georgia players.
From there, Quavo continued to show his support for Georgia throughout the season. While he didn’t have much to say after the Bulldogs beat up on Appalachian State in Week 1, he celebrated the team’s tough road victory against Notre Dame in Week 2.
He also celebrated the team’s Week 9 blowout win over Florida.
And he went wild when Georgia worked its way to the top of the College Football Playoff rankings by the end of October.
But lest you think Quavo was only there for the good times, he was also there for the team through the rough ones. In Week 11, Georgia got absolutely clobbered by Auburn 40-17. It was a loss that looked like it was going to prevent Georgia from playing in the CFP this season—and Quavo was there to deliver some tough love to the team. He called them out for having too many "dropped passes" and committing too many "dumbass lil boi mental penalties" during the game.
And that (it had to be that, right?) got the Georgia team refocused. The following week, the Bulldogs beat down Kentucky 42-13 before ending its regular season with another easy 38-7 win against its rivals Georgia Tech. The strong finish earned Georgia a spot in the 2017 SEC Championship Game, and Quavo was, as he said in a tweet, "in the building" for the Dec. 2 game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
It’s a good thing he was, too, because Georgia avenged its earlier loss to Auburn by knocking the Tigers off 28-7. It gave Quavo the chance to celebrate the win with the Georgia team in person.
It also propelled Georgia back into the CFP conversation. While most people assumed the team would be out of the mix after its earlier loss to Auburn, it jumped back into it by beating Auburn and was eventually named the 3 seed in the CFP bracket with a Jan. 1 matchup against Oklahoma.
Quavo didn’t just disappear for a month after that win, though. Other celebrity fans might have faded into the background before popping back up on New Year’s Day, but a few days before Christmas, Quavo jumped on Twitter to welcome all those high school players who signed with Georgia on National Signing Day. He also gave Smart credit for building on the team’s foundation by adding a bunch of new highly-touted recruits to the Bulldogs roster.
Quavo then got back to business and made yet another in-person appearance at Georgia’s Rose Bowl game against Oklahoma in California. He looked on as Georgia played in one of the best Rose Bowls ever before taking the field to celebrate with the team for a second time this season. Quavo was front and center as Georgia snapped photos.
He also did an interview on the field and talked about what a great run it has been for Georgia. He even suggested he might make a song dedicated to the team.
And just in case you weren't totally convinced that Quavo is really all about the Bulldogs, he took to Twitter yet again on Monday at about 6 a.m. to explain that he was having trouble sleeping because of the big CFP National Championship Game that’s just hours away.
Maybe Quavo doesn’t deserve all of the credit for Georgia’s success this season. Smart, Fromm, Chubb, Michel, the Georgia defense, and all of the other Georgia players deserve some of it, too. Even their kicker seems kind of a cool (for a kicker).
But as Quavo himself has mentioned, just about everything he’s touched over the last six months has turned to gold.
So why did anyone think the Georgia football team would be any different? If the Bulldogs beat Alabama on Monday night, this man deserves a ring.
