‘Unimaginable’: Georgia celebrates another title
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia football coach Kirby Smart had a good-natured complaint to fans when celebrating the Bulldogs’ back-to-back national championships with a parade and ceremony for the second straight year on Saturday.
“You didn’t tell me last year we were going back-to-back. Wow!” said a smiling Smart.
Smart referenced a quote from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden when he said winning the second straight national title for the first time in school history was more difficult than ending the Bulldogs’ 41-year title drought in 2021.
“Winning takes talent,” Smart said, before adding, “but to repeat takes character.”
Saturday’s parade led the team to Sanford Stadium, where many fans held up three fingers as they looked ahead to the goal of a threepeat. No team has won three consecutive national championships in the AP poll era, which dates to 1936.
“We can’t wait to see what lies ahead for this team,” Smart said. “This team will have to be hungry because a lot of this team is coming back.”
Georgia won its second straight national championship despite having a record 15 players selected from its 2021 team in last year’s NFL draft. The Bulldogs clinched the 2022 championship with their runaway 65-7 win over TCU in Monday night’s national championship game.
Georgia will face more heavy losses this offseason. Tight end Darnell Washington and cornerback Kelee Ringo have announced they are leaving school early to enter the draft. Defensive tackle Jalen Carter, offensive tackle Broderick Jones, edge rusher Nolan Smith and safety Chris Smith are among other prominent Georgia players in the draft.
Perhaps Georgia’s biggest loss, however, will be quarterback Stetson Bennett, even though Bennett is projected to be a possible late-round pick in the draft. The focus will shift to the competition to replace Bennett, who passed for four touchdowns and ran for two scores in the rout of TCU.
Bennett wore a red sweatshirt that read, “Them Dawgs Is Hell.”
Bennett said Georgia’s players were motivated by those who “kept telling us how bad we were” and said the Bulldogs couldn’t have another championship season after losing so many players to the NFL.
“We kept winning,” Bennett said. “Y’all didn’t want to believe it. … We got two rings, you know?”
Bennett was named offensive MVP in each of his four CFP games in the two championship runs and was 28-3 as a starter.
Georgia’s 2022 Southeastern Conference and national championship banners were raised at the stadium. College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock presented Smart the national championship trophy.
“There’s only nine of these and you have two of them,” Hancock said.
Among others speaking at the ceremony were SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
University of Georgia president Jere Morehead called the celebration of back-to-back championships “an unimaginable moment.”
“Enjoy what has been created and be a part of what is coming in the future as this dynasty continues to develop,” Morehead said.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
MILWAUKEE — The Brewers‘ starting rotation could have a new look next season with right-handers Frankie Montas and Colin Rea heading into free agency.
The Brewers announced Monday that Montas had declined his part of a $20 million mutual option for 2025. The Brewers turned down the $5.5 million club option on Rea’s contract.
Montas receives a $2 million buyout and Rea gets a $1 million buyout.
In other moves Monday, right-hander Kevin Herget was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets, and left-hander Rob Zastryzny was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs. First baseman Jake Bauers and right-hander Bryse Wilson cleared waivers and were sent outright to Triple-A Nashville.
Montas, 31, had a combined 7-11 record with a 4.84 ERA and 148 strikeouts over 150⅔ innings in 30 starts for the Cincinnati Reds and Brewers this season. He was 3-3 with a 4.55 ERA in 11 starts for the Brewers, who acquired him just before the trade deadline.
Rea, 34, was 12-6 with a 4.28 ERA this season in 32 appearances, including 27 starts. He struck out 135 in 167⅔ innings. Rea had an 8.31 ERA in September and was left off the Brewers’ NL Wild Card Series roster.
Herget, 33, had no record with one save and a 1.59 ERA in seven appearances with Milwaukee this year. He was 5-1 with four saves and a 2.27 ERA in 38 relief outings with Triple-A Nashville.
Zastryzny, 32, was 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA in nine appearances with Milwaukee. He pitched in 30 games with Nashville and went 4-0 with a 3.03 ERA.
The 29-year-old Bauers batted .199 with a .301 on-base percentage, 12 homers and 43 RBIs in 116 games this season. He also hit a seventh-inning homer that broke a scoreless tie in the decisive Game 3 of the Wild Card Series with the Mets, who rallied in the ninth to win 4-2.
Wilson, who turns 27 on Dec. 20, went 5-4 with a 4.04 ERA in 34 appearances, including nine starts.
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