National Championship offers compelling storylines

Published 8:21 am Thursday, January 12, 2023

Remember the movie, “Rudy?” It was a compelling true story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, whose dream it was to play on the legendary Notre Dame football team, despite being undersized and not particularly talented. Rudy was a “walk on,” a non-scholarship player who was more tolerated than welcomed. Still, he persisted year after year, and eventually got to dress for a game, though surely not play. In the final few seconds of the last game of his career, the other seniors began a chant, “Ru-DY! Ru-DY!” The entire stadium picked it up, and the coach reluctantly sent him in. In his last possible play, he sacked the mighty Georgia Tech quarterback. The crowd erupted, and little Rudy was carried off the field on the shoulders of his giant teammates! It was a memorable moment!

Now an even greater true story has happened. A new “Rudy” has walked on to a team for which he had dreamed to play since he was a little boy. Not just play, he wanted to be the quarterback, the highest of all skill positions. To be sure, he wasn’t big enough or fast enough, and didn’t have the arm strength of any of the highly regarded quarterbacks. He even looked like he’d be more comfortable behind an accountant’s desk than in a weight room.

This new “Rudy” didn’t start well. He even left his chosen University to go for a year to a little junior college 500 miles away. He thought that killed any chance he would ever have to realize his dream, but he didn’t quit. He came back, and walked on again, with the same high hopes but even less chance to ever get to play. But he stayed with it, and gradually worked his way into 4th string on the team, then 3rd. Eventually, he made the 2nd string, then 1st! He did this with sheer determination and grit. He worked harder and longer than anybody on his team. His example began to inspire the 4- and 5-star players around him to give their best, too. With Stetson Bennett at quarterback, the team began to win like never before. 

In fact, they won the National Championship, something the University of Georgia had not done in forty-one years. That would make a great movie, right?

But wait! There’s more. “Rudy II,” the Most Valuable Player of that Championship team, began the next season barely any higher rated as a quarterback than when he first started. Yet he methodically kept working, and began to amass some pretty amazing statistics. Still, though his undefeated season demanded that he be nominated for the Heisman Trophy, he received the fewest votes of any of the candidates. 

He didn’t sulk. He went back to work, and engineered an amazing comeback win in the semi-final game, down 14 points in the final quarter against a fine Ohio State team, to eke out a last minute win by the narrowest of margins.

Then in the title game, this new “Rudy II” led his team to completely dominate a gritty TCU team to win their second consecutive National Championship, 65-7! He accounted for six touchdowns, four passing and two running.

This nobody of a quarterback finished his college career with a record of 29-3, the second best in all of college football history! Oh, and did I mention that he won the Most Valuable Player on Offense in the Championship Game, for the second year in a row? 

This story could not possibly have been scripted any more dramatically, except perhaps to have a local player also star in the game. Somebody cue Baldwin High School’s alum Javon Bullard. In just the second quarter, he intercepted TCU’s Heisman finalist Max Duggan, not once but twice, shutting down any chance TCU had to climb back into the game. He was named the Most Valuable Player on Defense, just as he had been in the Peach Bowl semi-final against Ohio State.  

Folks, this is the stuff of college football legend! 

John Cotten

Milledgeville