After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal, to giant statues.

If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your attention. your podcast from. I used to live in Georgia, Athens, actually, when I was a kid for a brief time, and I'm fairly confident there are no avalanches in Athens, Georgia, really in the state of Georgia. But the Bulldogs were a part of one in Los Angeles, just a few hours ago. Wow.

Wow, as in eyeball emoji, eye popping eyeball emoji. Congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs on their second straight college football national championship and this one, a no doubter. And I'm sure there are many people out there who would say, Oh, I predicted this.

I guess this. I knew this was going to happen. Yeah, you can say that all you want. TCU earned its spot in this national championship and against the likes of Michigan and others had shown that it could go toe to toe with the best in the game. And so congratulations to the Horn frogs on an incredible season.

One that included victories over ranked teams like say in Oklahoma State. It was pretty amazing to see the way that Georgia started out and TCU had the score tied late in the first quarter. But the way that Georgia started out so comfortably, so confidently, so sure of their dominance, and they played like they expected to romp.

They played like they expected to dominate. That's an attitude. It's a swagger. And it certainly comes with experience. It comes with being part of a program that's now generating a dozen or more NFL prospects and NFL draft picks. 15 Georgia Bulldogs left last year's team to go and play at the next level.

15. But that type of competition, that type of a factory, if you will, where players recognize if I don't bring it every single day in practice, if I don't give it my all, I may never see the field. It generates internal competition that raises the level of play for everyone. No doubt there will be a bunch of Bulldogs that head to the next level come the draft in a few months. Will that include Stetson Bennett?

That's a question that we won't have the answer to until we get there. But he certainly has played his best football on the biggest stages, including a second consecutive national title, a 15-0 season, and 65 points for his offense. Wow.

Again, eye-popping, eyeball emoji. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Farewell to college football. This one last game at SoFi Stadium coming up in about an hour. Generally, we talked to our friend Michael Duarte of NBC LA about the college, or excuse me, about the pro teams.

There goes the perfect show. About the pro teams in the LA area or the pro events in the LA area. The Rams, of course, the Lakers. We talked to Doug Dodgers with Michael, but he was there at SoFi and I thought it would be fun because we a lot of times get college football analysts or we get insiders and reporters and writers who cover the specific teams. We thought it would be fun to see this national championship at SoFi through the eyes of Michael, who wasn't covering either one of these teams over the course of the season and will be able to give us a perspective from someone who was there kind of jumping in on the national championship. I know that it was half TCU purple and half Georgia red.

But man, I wonder. It's hard to tell unless you're inside the stadium, even when they pan the stands and pan the whole stadium. How many people stayed until the end?

Because LA traffic is notorious. How many people wanted to get out of there because of the fact that it was a blowout? Now if you're a Georgia fan, especially if you're a diehard, you would want to stay for the confetti and the championship presentation.

But I wonder how many fans who are maybe casual, were local, didn't necessarily have a rooting interest, or who were wearing horned frog purple were ready to get out just so they could beat the traffic. Man, that college football season wrapped up with something that we hadn't seen, maybe ever, but definitely in years. And in over a decade, we finally get a repeat national champ. Last one, Alabama in 2011 and 2012. So a college football championship, and now a college football program that's being held up as one that offers the gold standard. Gosh, no sooner have they popped the confetti guns and everything is laying on the field. I'm sure they're still cleaning up at SoFi, but the questions have already begun about where Georgia belongs in college football lore and college football history.

Spare me, please. Those kind of questions drive me insane because we are such victims and creatures of the moment, meaning we're all about recency bias, right? The most recent thing we've seen very often is what sticks with us. It is fresh in our memories. I can't do those historical comparisons right off the top.

I need a little more time. And so with Nick Saban, Kirby Smart's mentor looking on as a member of the College Game Day crew, Smart definitely has built a program that is among the best in the nation that's got back to back titles. And as I say, it's now become a bit of a factory. Something else that I heard that I think is really interesting and worth noting in this age of the transfer portal, Georgia only has one player. One guy that came from the transfer portal, which means most of these are recruits and are homegrown and are in it for the long haul with Kirby Smart and the dogs. If you didn't see it, there's a video out there of Ugga. He did not make the trip to LA. He's not an LA guy.

He prefers the Southeast. There's also a video of him getting the sweater put on him. I was going to say putting the sweater on, but that sounds funny for a dog. No, there is no dog on the planet who likes wearing sweaters. I'm sorry.

That's just it's not a dog. His face while they're forcing him to wear this sweater. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. If you decided that the national championship was not worth your time all the way through the end. So if you're a casual fan, no doubt you didn't watch through the final couple minutes.

I know my mom and her husband were watching for a while, but when it was what was it? 38-7 at halftime and really there was a massive really violent swing right before the end of the first half that just was that exclamation point. If you didn't believe well, believe now there will be no comeback because what do we know about TCU this season? Five times when trailing at the half, the Horn Frogs had rallied to win late. They'd made a living and a reputation off their second half comebacks.

But just before half there was a sequence of events in the final minute that just underscored TCU would not be coming back on this night on this stage against this team. Duggan from the two will throw it all the way across the field. It's picked up by Bullard. Bullard got him again. Bullard picked it and then tumbled. He had a touchdown. Would have had a big six, but after the interception, he tumbled down right around the 15 yard line. Javan Bullard's got two interceptions in the game. From the twenty-two, second and ten for the Dawgs. Thirty-two seconds to go. Bennett to throw.

Right angle. One on one coverage and caught. I think yeah touchdown Mitchell.

He's still fighting the guy. TCU ended up with the ball when they came out of the pile but the officials say touchdown. Oh, it was definitely a touchdown.

That's Scott Howard on Georgia Bulldogs Radio and so as they went into halftime and after a twenty-one point second quarter, it's thirty-eight to seven. I don't know if you expected that the Horn Frogs would never find the end zone again or for that matter, wouldn't even put a kick on the board. Not even a field goal. Outside of the one touchdown for Max Duggan and it was the thing of beauty. It was a 60 yard strike and then a touchdown run for Duggan. Outside of that touchdown, which was late first quarter, they never scored again. That to me is just as stunning as the offensive output but certainly, if you're gonna continue to give the Bulldogs as many opportunities, so short drives by TCU drives that went nowhere, not necessarily three and outs but couldn't get anything going. Kept giving Georgia the short field.

That is a recipe for disaster so you can understand very quickly why it snowballed and turned into an avalanche. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks so much for joining us on what is a Monday night into a Tuesday morning soon. We've got a lot of news from the NFL as well including at least one more coaching vacancy, head coaching vacancy, and other teams that are reaching out now and are beginning to interview or request interviews with candidates. Several teams that let go assistants including the Titans who fired four of their assistant coaches. We've also got some of the latest on injuries as we look ahead to wild card weekend and DeMar Hamlin. The updates they get better and better. He is back in Buffalo.

You can find me on Twitter, ALaw Radio, also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. I really did enjoy the fanfare at SoFi to start out this game and I enjoyed watching Georgia. I felt badly for the Horn Frogs. I don't generally feel that way when it comes to sports and when I do feel badly for a team or for an athlete, you know it's it's bad because this is part of competition. You win some and you lose some. You dominate some and you get dominated sometimes and so I don't always have these pangs where I feel badly but when I do, it's generally in the college ranks. In pro sports, you sign up for it and honestly, a lot of these athletes as much as there are some losses that are more painful than others, at the pro level, you accept that failure is a major part of what you do and you know that in many cases, there's always tomorrow but the college level, it's a little different cuz this is the end for a lot of these guys.

Not all of them. Some will have an opportunity to use this as motivation, certainly for Sonny Dykes getting to this point and making their first college football playoff, recognizing that there is a twelve team expansion very soon, which begs the question, how much will this happen when we get to a dozen teams? That is my fear actually. No way to know that until we actually get there, but there is a part of me that's really worried about how expanding the college football playoff could result in more of these types of lopsided affairs.

Not across the board but some of them. I'm not sure that I believe every year there are a dozen teams that can compete or even should compete for the national championship but that's a conversation for another day because certainly the semi finals were really competitive and were good to the last drop but not so much on this Monday night, but when you think about the college ranks, yes, there are some who will walk away will graduate hopefully and we'll move on to whatever it is that they're doing. You know with their careers, whether it be football or some other element of professional sports or whether it be something completely different and so this will be the last opportunity they had and it can certainly be a little more resonant that way and you kind of hang on to it. I'll never forget really the emotions that I had in my senior year playing college basketball and the last game that I ever played the last couple minutes. I can remember my emotions and the gymnasium.

I can remember being in that arena and what happened in those final couple minutes. So that generally does stick with you, but failure is a part of sports. If you won all the time you wouldn't have the same character building. You wouldn't have the same depth.

You wouldn't have the same ability to respond to adversity. So I don't I don't ever think that a season where no rain falls is good for a team and it's it's not good for a human being either to have nothing but eternal sunshine. That's not life right.

That's not reality, but in this case it was hard. It was on national TV. TCU really didn't have the opportunity in this game at least to show what they could do and that's a credit to the Georgia defense. It was stifling.

It was smothering. Generally, we name one defensive player of the week and when we get to that, I think we might just have to go dogs defense. These numbers you want to talk about eye popping five sacks, nine tackles for loss, and three takeaways by the Bulldogs. And as much as there was still hope, I think until probably that last minute of the second quarter. The Bulldogs had found a groove playing that first half gave them even more confidence, even more swagger, even bigger smiles.

Was there even one time when the camera was focused on Stetson Bennett meaning a close up that he wasn't smiling the whole time he was definitely enjoying his trip to LA. So yes, this was dominance. It was the dogs flexing their muscles. I'm not gonna use any type of dog analogy. I mean my experience with a dog these days is more grunting, snoring, sighing. I had no idea that older dogs made so many odd noises.

That's Penny. These dogs were much more in their prime and it is a lot of fun to watch football when it is played at the highest level and as technically sound as these dogs. Bennett takes the snap and the shotgun throws for the corner Brock Bowers one on one caught touchdown. He ate him alive falls down into the end zone. Six more for Georgia Bennett to throw lobs it to the right corner.

There's McConkey. He got on his donkey and made a sliding catch in the right corner. Touchdown. George is gonna get back on the line and go quickly. Hand it off to Robinson straight ahead from inside the one.

Did he break the plane? The officials are running in. Yeah, there's the signal.

Arms go up in the air. Touchdown Branson Robinson. Once again, Scott Howard on Georgia Bulldogs Radio. Not very often that in a national championship game really in any sport that you have your star player pulled off the field when the game is still got a lot of time left on the clock, but it was a nice moment by Kirby Smart to pull Stetson Bennett out of the huddle and off the field and to allow the Georgia fans there to show their appreciation. And I think it's kinda cool to again you don't have it happen very often, especially not if the game is competitive, but to allow some of the other guys, the reserve players to get on the field and to taste what it's like to play in a venue like that.

I mean so far so different than a lot of the SEC stadiums, but to be able to say, hey, I played in a national championship. I was able to take a snap. I was out there.

I made a tackle. I got to run on that field and be part of it and you share that that's also a bonding experience too when you have it and certainly whether it's Kirby Smart or Stetson Bennett or some of the other Georgia Bulldogs, they talked about the bond and chemistry. It's a word that's thrown around a lot in sports. You can't always define it. It's really difficult to run up a formula that tells you how to get it. In fact, it's near impossible and there's no one right way.

There's no one tried and true path to chemistry. Winning certainly helps, but not all winning teams have a chemistry that's palpable and that's visible. Not all winning teams care about each other enough that this is an emotional experience too. And yet when a team has it, it adds a whole separate element because then they wanna go out and they wanna fight for the guy on their left or the girl on their right. It's not just about me and my experience. It's about I want the rest of the guys in this locker room, the rest of the girls in this locker room to be happy, to feel the same euphoria, to win. I wanna win with them and it's clear that the Bulldogs have the chemistry and that also is a tribute to their leadership that starts with Kirby Smart. So a lot of reaction coming from Los Angeles.

I'd love to hear from you on Twitter, ALaw Radio, also on our Facebook page. If you haven't yet voted for Monday Mortification, we always ask you. I don't know if we'll have the opportunity following a wild card weekend, but we've asked you which teams, which fan bases woke up on Monday with a mood. They were melancholy. They were morose. They were morbid. They were mad. That poll is still ongoing for a couple more hours on both Twitter and Facebook. Our phone number 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBC. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues.

If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. Yes, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. And this will be the last snap of the twenty-two season. There it is. Beck takes the knee and the countdown begins.

Twenty- three seconds. Dogs aren't waiting for that clock to get to zero. They've hit the field celebrating here at SoFi Stadium. TCU begrudgingly walks to the middle of the field. Georgia on the logo celebrating back to back mats.

Perfection wears red and black tonight. Fifteen and oh the dogs have done it and won a second consecutive national title and you can't be any more impressive than the way they did it tonight. Sixty-five to seven. The Bulldogs leave their most abrasive mark of the season and they made them quit. Let me tell you what. Sixty-five to seven the final and let's soak it in.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Final call on Georgia Bulldogs Radio. Yes, at that point, it was only about allowing the final seconds to tick off the clock. It was a no doubter. It was dominant.

At the same time, I enjoyed at least the first I'll say two and a half quarters. It was fun to watch that offense operate. It was fun to see the high flying, high octane, high powered offense and of course, Tetson Bennett when it was all said and done even though he didn't play the whole game accounted for six touchdowns.

Four passing, two on the ground. What struck me is how often he was throwing the ball to guys who were wide open. There were blown coverages certainly but the number of options that he had and the way that he was able to recognize what the defense was doing to his first rushing touchdown which is a 21 yarder.

He could see very clearly how it was playing out with the TCU defense and that they didn't have a spy on him. Essentially, a player who's assigned just to shadow him and to follow him. It's not a box and one obviously because there are more players out there on the field but that's how sometimes I think of it like you might see in basketball right say with the Steph Curry.

You've got a defense that's a box or a four other guys who are assigned to just kind of protect the middle and keep their opponent from coming up with anything easy but then you've got one person who's assigned to chase Steph all over the floor. Well, so there wasn't a spy on Stetson Bennett in that particular moment and he sees it and he watches the defense pull to the other side and boom he walks in well he saunters in nearly untouched and that was a precursor of what was to come because very often whether it was Stetson Bennett whether it was him throwing to say Brock Bowers. How many times was Brock Bowers just wide open and there's no defense within arms length of the sophomore tight end.

Sophomore tight end. Seven catches 152 yards and a score for him. The numbers are gaudy. They're they are the type of numbers that you wouldn't expect in a national championship where it's supposed to be supremely competitive. At halftime, Georgia was on pace for 76 points and more than 700 yards of offense. My math teacher mom would be very proud of that tweet. I did the math all by myself.

No calculator. Ultimately the dogs finished with 589 yards of offense and remember they they took out their star quarterback and they were allowing other guys to play 589 yards of total offense 335 through the air 254 on the ground. They play not mistake free football but did not turn the ball over so won the turnover battle 3-0 and were able to pick up in this game 12 yards per pass and nearly 6 yards per rush. Nine of 13 on third down. 32 first downs compared to nine for TCU. The numbers paint part of the picture. I think they paint a pretty accurate, accurate picture and for Stetson Bennett to be able to go out this way to be able to finish with such an exclamation point certainly boosts his NFL resume.

The eyeballs, the eye popping eyeball emoji. Certainly there are plenty of NFL scouts and NFL officials who are paying attention. Now does it translate to the next level? I don't know. There seems to be some debate about that.

People kind of land in the middle. We talked to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports last week and he said, I'm not really a draft guy but what I hear from most people is fifth round, sixth round. Well, Kirby Smart has a different idea. People have slept on Stetson Bennett for too long. He needs an opportunity to play for a long time to the next level. He will probably get an opportunity.

Will he be able to take advantage the way that he did at Georgia? As I talked about with the chemistry, it's something almost ethereal. You can't write it up. You can't tell guys how to develop chemistry but you know it when you see it and in the case of Stetson Bennett, the Georgia Bulldogs, it was definitely something special. This team loves each other. I mean, when Coach Smart says he's never had a group like this, he's right. We love each other.

Every single person on this team would do anything for each other and you know, it's a special group. When he came in my office and he said, I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna come back or ride off in the wind. He goes, I don't know. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal.

Mm hmm. And to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids. You know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal.

Mm hmm. To giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids.

You know people who get surgeries to look like an animal. Mm hmm. To giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. Everybody's telling me that I should just ride off in the sunset and be the legendary quarterback that won a national title and he said that's just not who I am and he's like I don't I don't get it. Why should I do that when I have an opportunity to play again like like why why don't we go win it again? Well there you go.

Why don't we just do that? Yeah, it's not easy to do. It doesn't happen all the time. Hasn't happened since 11, 12 and Alabama and the biggest challenge in repeating so often is that teams are looking at you as though you are their national championship, right? They're giving they're giving you everything they've got. You represent their toughest opponent. You represent not just a win potentially for them, but kind of a notch in their belt.

If you can take down a national champ, especially one like Georgia. But what Kirby Smart has said all year is we're not the hunted. We're going to be the hunters. We're going to flip that around.

We're going to stay aggressive. Did you see his pregame interview? I hesitate to call it an interview because he was asked.

I think it was Holly Rowe that asked him about their approach. I don't remember her exact phrasing of the question, but her approach and he said we're going to be aggressive. We're going to be attacking and that was it and he just stopped. I'll go back and see if I can find the exact phrasing, but it was very quick.

It was very succinct and concise. We're going to attack. We're in attack mode and boy were they from the very beginning. But it wasn't just about the offense.

It was certainly about the defense too and the way the defense was able to limit Max Duggan and the Horn Frogs. So you're here from Sonny Dykes and his quarterback as well as more from Georgia. On top of the hour, we'll head to Los Angeles. Michael Duarte will join us after attending this game at SoFi. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. And at what point in this game do you bring Stetson out just to give him the ovation that he so richly deserves? What a way to cap off our time out Georgia. This may be the moment. I don't know Georgia calls the time.

Yep. Stetson Bennett hugs Kirby Smart. Look at the team just react to Bennett coming out of the game.

Carson Beck's going to come in and quarterback in the national championship game here in the fourth quarter. The huddle because I told all the guys they're like what what are we doing? Why don't we have a play and I was like well, they kind of let me walk out of here and but in the huddle, you know, just as simple as it is just one last huddle with the guys, you know, and that was special coming off seeing Coach Smart. That was that was really cool and I appreciate that.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The largest margin of victory in a bowl game in college football history. It's weird to call this a bowl.

I don't love that because bowl is a different connotation but yes, I suppose in the context and the the construct of college football, they would like these to be bowl games too but in the national championship, this was a margin of victory definitely earned and felt much more like an avalanche and the the more that Georgia was able to force the issue, the more the Bulldogs got that full head of steam and you could see it. You could see it in their body language, on the sidelines, in the smile of Stetson Bennett who yes, did get pulled off the field and didn't have to call a play in his last huddle. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

Scott Howard. He is the voice of Georgia Bulldogs Radio and actually, while I was watching the game, I was going back and forth between TCU Radio and Georgia Radio because I like to hear the various calls and I generally learn a lot about the teams and about their run up to this particular game when I'm listening to their own radio broadcast. So, it's always fascinating to me to hear it through their eyes and ears. Definitely, as we're in the second quarter, so I was listening to TCU in the second quarter. As they're in the second quarter, the Horn Frogs radio team is also reflecting what's happening on the field too and I wouldn't call it deer in the headlights cuz that's not fair. TCU was working hard at it just as the defense was able to get the push on the line and was able to get that dominance in the trenches. Really, it was not just physical dominance, but the speed and that explosiveness, the first step as they were able to get the pressure on Max Duggan over and over and over again. Really, there was not a whole lot of opportunity for Duggan and for the Horn Frogs to find any rhythm offensively. I think tonight was one of those nights where, at least offensively, we couldn't get anything rolling. They were playing well on defense. We were shooting ourselves in the foot.

I was making bad decisions and I wasn't executing well, not putting us in a position to score some points and move the ball. Yeah, it was not the type of display that we're used to seeing from TCU and this is a game that when you contrast it with the national semifinal against Michigan, part of what helped against the Wolverines, it really was a springboard and this incredible advantage to them were the two pick sixes. Remember, there was a pick six right off the top there in the first quarter and then there was another one in the game and those obviously were not only taking away opportunities from Michigan, but were putting points on the board instantly and that all is contagious and that confidence, as I talked about with Georgia, you could really see it. But TCU never had that opportunity and that was very apparent. Other than the one long 60-yard pass that set up the initial touchdown, the only touchdown for the Horned Frogs, it felt like they were stunted and stymied at everything they tried.

Meanwhile, the opposite was the case with the dogs. Wide open, not necessarily routes on air, but there were times where there were not defenders within striking distance and couldn't catch them and guys are running free through the second level of the defense. Stetson Bennett's got two rushing touchdowns essentially without being touched and so their game plan was executed to perfection. They certainly had a little bit of a physical advantage, but this was a lot more about the way that they were able to see what the defense was throwing at them and take advantage of it with incredible athletes and a system that has obviously worked extremely well over the past couple of seasons. I think we're all disappointed that we didn't play better and we didn't coach better and we didn't represent our team better than we did tonight, but we'll learn from it and the next time we're on a stage like this we'll handle it better. The best thing about being part of a football team and especially this one, I mean long past this time we're probably not going to remember the wins and losses or stuff like that, but we're going to remember the men in that locker room, the guys that we got to grow up with that we learn more about. When stuff got tough and things kind of got hard, you saw the type of men that we got in our locker room that continue to fight, believe.

It's such a fun group to go to work with. It's the little stuff that you got to remember about this season, you know, probably less about the the wins and losses, but you know what great men we got. TCU head coach Sonny Dykes and quarterback Max Duggan who definitely inserted himself into the national conversation and I'm happy for TCU that they were able to get to this point for the Frogs to be competing for their first national championship in college football going back to what was it 1930s, the late 1930s. I know it doesn't feel like it now or maybe in this moment it feels much more like a failure and it it definitely has to sting in that locker room and with those athletes again because they know they can play better. They know that's not the best that they can do, but that's part of sports right and I say this a lot but I'll say it again because you do often have games like this that don't necessarily make sense. Even if you did take the over or even if you did bet Georgia and take the points, it was I think the largest spread I'm not I don't follow the betting lines much but it was the largest spread for a college football national championship or a championship game. So TCU was a heavy underdog but even if you did believe that Georgia was going to win by double figure points this is astounding. 65 to 7 you couldn't see that coming and so analytics the formulas that that coaches and and the scouting departments use these tools that seem to dominate at times in pro sports certainly but definitely in college athletics as well they don't measure what happens on a stage like this whether there are guys who perform better under pressure or the opposite don't respond well to the pressure but just have a bad day but it is possible that every single member of a team cannot play its best and can have a performance like this because collectively as human beings you know we take cues from the people next to us for better or for worse and a team is only as good as its weakest link very often and so for TCU for Georgia you're talking about the perfect storm right for better or for worse the Bulldogs were able to play one of their best games of the year against a challenging opponent but TCU is on the opposite end of that repeating's not easy it may look like it was easy Georgia made it look easy with a perfect run and an epic championship game but it's really not and consider again that there were 15 different dogs that left for the NFL after last year's national championship which was their first in more than four decades recognizing the bullseye on their back and that it's difficult to capture lightning in a bottle and Kirby Smart certainly knows it the biggest challenge is the same thing it is in all of the world the world we live in today it's society we live in entitlement so the minute that you think you're entitled to to winning games and and you don't have to work hard coach coach Dykes and I were talking about it you know the uphill battle for those guys is you think that you just inherit success and uh I personally think next year is going to be a much much more difficult challenge over this year plus you don't have Stetson Bennett it's maybe he doesn't appear to be this great pro prospect but he was perfect for Georgia and he was perfect for college football and so to have him an offense that fit him like a glove it's it's interesting too I was thinking about it because they had the introduction or the announcement I should say of the next class of the college football hall of fame and Tim Tebow is part of it Tebow one of the greatest college football quarterbacks the game has ever seen and yet other than a bit of success here or there in the NFL really was never a right fit for the pro game for a variety of reasons and everybody has their own theories he's a lightning rod still and so maybe Stetson Bennett doesn't become a starter in the NFL I mean think about some of the other Heisman even recent Heisman Trophy winners Kyler Murray is a good example Baker Mayfield's another good example they got their shot they've started but I'm not sure anybody would say they're a sure thing for the next 10 to 15 years and they definitely have not had the same success as they did in the college game so they're two completely different animals in pro and college but he's he's got sneaky speed I think you could see that on display he's smart obviously has the heart and can chuck and duck the football I hope there's a team that brings them on board and gives them an opportunity you know it's not a bad gig if you can earn a paycheck as a backup quarterback in the NFL and considering what the league went through this year and I'm not sure this year was a total aberration how often did we see not just backup QBs but backups to backups on the NFL stage this year my goodness the number of third string quarterbacks that got starts this year or the number of QBs that weren't even on their team's roster to begin the season who ended up starting games or playing oh yeah there's always an opportunity if you can stay healthy and you know the playbook and you are ready when your number is called we'll head to LA next it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS 4 radio what's the strangest thing you're afraid of tails without fur on them such as rats or opossums I'm Larry Mullins host of the podcast your weirdest fears where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of everything from animal people hybrids you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues if I ever saw one of those giant statues I probably would poop my pants listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from the listening you love is on the free Odyssey app your trusted local radio stations coverage of your favorite teams live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand best of all you can completely customize your listening experience follow topics you care about like leagues and teams pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later there's a lot to listen to so get started and download the free Odyssey app today the listening you love is on the free Odyssey app your trusted local radio stations coverage of your favorite teams live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand best of all you can completely customize your listening experience follow topics you care about like leagues and teams pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later there's a lot to listen to so get started and download the free Odyssey app today