ATHENS – It’s been a long, challenging season for Georgia football, and the Bulldogs have not achieved everything they aspired to, or even achieved their first team goal of winning the SEC East Division.
And yet, the team of Coach Kirby Smart kept fighting and he is probably playing his best football of the season and starting the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Friday afternoon.
‘These kids actually did more, okay? ‘Smart said the explanation for the difficulty of a season that started training sessions last June, and which includes the mental ups and downs of four games, is shifted, postponed or canceled amid a structured Covid-19 protocol that required them to abandon home trips and friends in social circles on campus.
“They did more through the pandemic because they had to work twice as hard to stay available,” Smart said. “They had to train twice a few weeks, which means they train once for Missouri, train again for Missouri, train once for Vandy, train again for Vandy, train longer.”
Vanderbilt canceled, of course, and now the undefeated Cincinnati is stepping into the ring.
The Bearcats worked hard and did everything in their power to reach their ultimate goals, making an appearance in the College Football playoffs and shooting at the national title, and yet they were denied.
“If you want to claim you want a chance and a shot,” Bearcats coach Luke Fickell said, “it’s an opportunity and it’s a shot.”
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl indeed promises that two of the more involved teams will fight for one final victory in the post-season.
Both teams are hungry. Both teams have something to prove.
𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.
– Chick-fil-A Peach Bake (@CFAPeachBowl) 31 December 2020
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