COLLEGE FOOTBALL, USA — The Rose Bowl between No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 3 Georgia at the end of the 2017 season was maybe the best playoff game so far of this nine-year playoff era, as the Bulldogs rallied for a 54-48 win in double overtime.
But Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah didn’t rewatch and relive this classic just for fun. This game featured Georgia’s Kirby Smart in his second year as a head coach and Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley in his first year. Now six years later, Smart has two national titles at Georgia, Riley is entering his second year of his new job at USC, and this semifinal clearly showed us the future of the sport.
It also featured a boatload of talent, from Baker Mayfield to Roquan Smith, from Nick Chubb to CeeDee Lamb, from Sony Michel to Mark Andrews.
But most importantly, it featured two young head coaches on the rise. How have they evolved since then? What did they learn? What would have changed — potentially in a major way — if Oklahoma had won instead?
This game matters so much for now, and thanks for reliving it on The College Football Survivor Show.
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