Georgia entered Friday night’s 34-11 dismantling of Michigan in the Orange Bowl as roughly a touchdown favorite, so that wasn’t overly new compared to earlier games this season.
Yet there was a different feel for the Bulldogs in their national semifinal against the Big Ten champion.
“This was probably one of the first weeks that nobody was riding us thinking that we were going to just destroy somebody, so we had no pressure,” Bulldogs junior inside linebacker Nakobi Dean said late Friday night on a Zoom call. “We always want to play with a chip on our shoulder, and that will be the same way from here on out.”
Motivation for Georgia’s crushing of the Wolverines came in many forms, with some of the Bulldogs using the conversation that followed the 41-24 loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship contest on Dec. 4 more than others. No coach, player or position group was spared from the criticism following that outcome in Atlanta, and there was also the fact Georgia had been upstaged by Michigan on the awards landscape.
Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart, who finished a distant fifth to Associated Press coach of the year Jim Harbaugh of the Wolverines, may have led the charge on both fronts.