Georgia-Ohio State: Media personalities react to Playoff matchup

The College Football Playoff matchups are out, and Georgia is set to take on Ohio State. Over the course of the Selection Show, ESPN media personalities have shared their thoughts on the matchup and what a couple of key factors could be.

Georgia Bulldogs and Atlanta Advantage…

Kirk Herbstreit on Georgia: “They were the No. 1 team that just got better as the year went on. They dealt with the pressure of being the defending champs. You know the defense gets a lot of the attention because it’s Kirby, but the offense this year is a juggernaut. Whoever matches up with them better get used to 12 personnel, a running game, play action pass and a quarterback who plays with a chip on his shoulder.”

Herbstreit on Ohio State playing in Atlanta: “Two teams and two venues that are the toughest: a good LSU team in the Superdome, you don’t want to play that game, and playing Georgia in Atlanta. You talk about energy in a building. There’s no better way to get redemption, if you can, than standing up to Kirby Smart and Georgia in that building.

Chris Fowler on Atlanta: “Yeah, I think there’s a chance we’ll be in Atlanta. And by the way, Kirby Smart can say seeding doesn’t matter but they’re playing in that building for the third time. Game one and game 13. They scored 99 points combined against Oregon and LSU. Slight edge. Seeding does matter in that game.”

Georgia-Ohio State History…

Rece Davis on Georgia-Ohio State: “We don’t have the rematch of Michigan-Ohio State yet, instead Ohio State will have to do what a lot of Buckeye fans thirst to do: go into SEC territory and prove a point against an SEC team. These teams were supposed to play in the regular season and because of some scheduling things in the near future they decided not to. We’ll get it in Atlanta instead.”

Fowler on Georgia-Ohio State history, seeding: “Georgia has only played Ohio State in football without a search engine because it was Kirk Herbstreit and Robert Smith against Garrison Hearst and Eric Zeier in the 1993 Citrus Bowl. The Bulldogs edges the Buckeyes. That’s the only previous game between these two, so you’ve got two really fresh matchups because TCU and Michigan have never met on the field. I’m looking forward to the semifinals.”

Vegas Says….

Chris “The Bear” Fallica on point spreads: “Georgia opens at -7 against Ohio State, there were a couple of 6.5s out there as well, and then Michigan opened at 9. Michigan has actually been bet up to 9.5 since then … The interesting thing when you look at the numbers here is, 1 is a smaller favorite over 4 than 2 is over 3. It kind of gives the perception that Ohio State should have been No. 3. Maybe they did kind of say they didn’t want a rematch even though most power ratings disagrees. Georgia kind of loses that one because they would have been a big double-digit favorite over TCU. Now they get the more difficult matchup that they could get in the semifinal.”

Ohio State Health…

Robert Griffin III on Ohio State potential: “This College Football Playoff is set up perfectly. You’ve got the reigning champs in Georgia going out trying to repeat … and Ohio State, they have all the weapons to go out, and if they play, try to beat a Georgia team that’s been dominant … When you play Georgia, you have to have special guys show up and make special plays. They have those guys on the roster, it’s just a matter of if they’re going to be able to play. They just had a linebacker playing running back for them. They’ve been so banged up. If they get healthy over the course of the next three weeks, it could be fireworks against Georgia.”

Dan Mullen on Ohio State health: “The Ohio State-Georgia match up is really interesting because I want to see what Ohio State team shows up. I remember at the start of the season the three-headed monster of TreyVeyon Henderson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, imagine if he shows up in this game. He hasn’t played, and that’s been the whole deal. As the season goes on, they’re not the stars, so they potentially have these superstars that could show up for this game and show out in this game and we could see the team that they really thought they had in the summer.”

Georgia X-Factors

Griffin: “We all know Stetson Bennett and this defense that they have on the other side is phenomenal, but it really all comes down to the way that they love to play football. If they do it their way then Darnell Washington has to show up in a big way. All 6-foot-7 of him, the man is a monster. He is a mismatch down the field not only because of his size and ability to run block basically as an extra offensive tackle but also because he leads them, of their top ten pass catchers he has the highest yards per catch on average. He’s not only blocking, he stretching it down the field and in the red zone. When he’s 6-foot-7 you can just throw it up to him. I can see them using that a lot more in the Playoff.”

Mullen: “Brock Bowers is the other X-factor because only one of their top for pass catchers is a wide receiver. So his running mate, Darnell does the dirty work as a tight end, but you’ve got to find out where Brock Bowers is. They can move him all over the field. He’s going to line up at receiver. He’s going to line up in the slot. He’s going to line up as a wing. They’re going to hand him a jet sweep. He’s their best play maker, most dynamic guy in this game, and as you get into big games and if you are going to go against Ohio State who can score points and you need to go score points and put up big numbers, he’s their most dynamic all around weapon that they put out there on the field offensively.”

NFL Draft Prospects…

Todd McShay on most interesting matchup of pro prospects: “I’m giving you a little bit different of a matchup because I want to get these two guys involved. CJ Stroud for Ohio State and defensive tackle Jalen Carter for Georgia. Have you guys watched him over the last couple of weeks? Animal. He had an ankle injury, came back and he’s playing like the No. 1 defensive prospect in the entire country these last couple of weeks. CJ Stroud, when he has a clean pocket, he can pick you apart. He has the timing, the accuracy, the touch at all three levels, but the achilles heal for him is when pressure comes up the middle and in his face. 88 is going to be a nightmare to him. It’s about changing his clock, maybe Ryan Day implementing more moving the pocket and getting him outside. He’s going to have to do more with his feet and his movement than he has been used to doing and is comfortable doing.”

Joey Galloway on Jalen Carter: “It was interesting to watch Georgia play Tennessee, and Hendon Hooker was the same way. He was standing in the pocket. He had clean looks at things. Then he plays Georgia, has pressure in his face, starts to get some pressure on him and things changed little bit. Ohio State, who has at times struggled to run the football, they’re going to have to find ways to get the run game going to slow down the pass rush and at times give CJ Stroud a chance to stand in a clean pocket. I don’t think they can do it unless they find a way to get the run game going and keep that defense off balanced.”