by LOS ANGELES – The road is long.
From the dressing room to the team buses, TCU Players and coaching staff marched a pathetic 80 meters into the bowels of SoFi Stadium.
It was 100 steps to hell, a horrible five-minute walk after the worst loss in college football national championship history had come to an end — a span spanning nearly a quarter-century dating back to the arrival of the BCS in 1998. In fact, the margin of victory was greater than any other in bowl history.
Offensive coordinator Garrett Riley made the walk. So did quarterback Max Duggan and coach Sonny Dykes. It was hard to ignore the memories of the Georgia Bulldogs’ minute-long rants: thunderous UGA chants overhead in the stands, chunks of red-and-black confetti beneath their feet, and the scent of celebratory cigar smoke wafting through the tunnel.
“Nobody really expected it to end like this,” says defensive end Dylan Horton. “It’s not something you think is going to happen — not like that.”
And yet it did. Call it what you will. A complete bang. A piercing outburst. An unprecedented deconstruction of a soccer team on the largest possible stage.
Georgia 65, TCU 7 was a one-sided bash.
The top-ranked Bulldogs (15-0) largely silenced the best story in college football, ending what felt like a miraculous fate and beating poor Cinderella before the glass slipper fitted.
In a dejected locker room, the TCU players moved quietly, packed their bags and marched to their bus. But not before you’ve delivered a very clear message to a small handful of reporters.
“That still doesn’t take anything away from what we’ve accomplished this year,” said running back Emari Demercado. “No one expected us to be here.”
“This one is going to sting and hurt,” added Duggan, “but this game isn’t going to take us away from what we’ve accomplished this year. It hurts, but this program is a step in the right direction.”
For more than 25,000 purple-clad TCU fans, dreams have been shattered from the start. Georgia scored on his first six possessions, taking a 38-7 lead at halftime and driving to a 58-point victory unprecedented in the title game era. The next closest was USC’s 55-19 win over Oklahoma in the 2004 BCS Championship.
To make matters worse, thousands of Horned Frogs fans in an end zone of the stadium felt the wrath of an unusual weather event in Los Angeles: chilling rain. A storm rolled across the Pacific Ocean, turning this $5 billion venue into a cold, wet, and miserable place.
Although covered with a translucent roof, SoFi Stadium was built without exterior walls, a design to show off the typically sunny and dry weather here.
On Monday evening, windblown rain flooded areas of the hall and caused temperatures to drop to over 50 degrees. Stadium staff worked with mops to remove rainwater and dry escalators, many of which were exposed to the elements.
All the time on the field, TCU’s dream team met its ultimate fate. Wet, cold and frustrated, hundreds of Frogs fans drowned their sorrows. They gathered in lines for alcoholic drinks, some of them emerging with 16-ounce beer cans in each hand. By halftime, many had already turned to fond memories.
“Hey, think of the Alamo Bowl!” yelled one fan, a reference to TCU’s 47-41 win over Oregon in a 2015 bowl game.
A few hours later, their players and coaches were walking around the dressing room wondering how it could have gone so wrong. Sure, Georgia was way more talented. In fact, the Bulldogs played with about 70 players who were rated four or five stars to TCU’s 17.
But the Frogs (13-2) had been beating more talented sides all season. They beat Oklahoma, won in Texas and defeated Michigan in the CFP semifinals. They had stormed back to win five games after falling behind in the second half.
They were college football’s comeback kids, the big underdog story of 2022, the Cinderella the sport needed.
And then Georgia David’s Goliath stunningly reminded David of his strength, power and speed.
The Bulldogs’ defense held Duggan and TCU to an early touchdown and nothing more.
Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated
“Obviously they have really good players,” Duggan said. “I bet they have a top 10 recruiting course every year. They develop them and have a really good coaching staff. That is a good recipe for success.”
Talent isn’t the only explanation for this dreadful outing. Riley says Georgia made adjustments to a secondary that was struggling in its last two games against LSU and Ohio State.
“They did a good job mixing up the coverage,” he says. “They did a good job fixing some things on the back end. Lots of different reporting, lots of variety, trying to probably confuse Max. You did a good job.”
Duggan completed just 14 passes for 152 yards, threw two interceptions and did not throw a touchdown. The Bulldogs held TCU at 188 yards offense, or about 300 yards below their season average.
Georgia showed coverage Horned Frogs players had seen in the film, but then changed her secondary appearance just before the snap, Duggan says. “They had a good plan to bait me with stuff.”
It was something else too. The Frogs’ offensive line folded against Georgia’s defensive line. “We won up front,” quips UGA defense coordinator Will Muschamp. “That’s what happened.”
Thus ended the fairytale story of 2022 TCU. David went down. Goodbye, Cinderella. And there, in the tunnel, the parade of purple-clad players and coaches made their 100-step march.
“It’s always hard when you hit someone in the chin,” Riley says as he approaches the buses for the return trip to Fort Worth. “Remarkable season. You can be proud of that. Unprecedented. After the sting of it has gone, they will all see that.”
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