Throughout the 2021-2022 college football season we as fans have seen many great games and unpredictable upsets. The most stunning of these upsets came on the 9th of October 2021. A Texas A&M team who was unranked and on a 2-game skid walked out onto Kyle Field as 18.5 point underdogs. History was against the Aggies as the Crimson Tide had a win streak of 100 games against unranked teams and the man leading the Crimson Tide, Nick Saban, had a perfect 25-0 record against his former assistants, which included Jimbo Fisher, head coach of the Aggies. In a turn of events, Seth Small hit a game winning FG from 28 yards as time expired to pull off the biggest upset of the 2021 season thus far.
Alabama, however, rebounded from this heartbreaking loss with 7 straight wins, including one over Georgia in the SEC championship to regain the #1 seed heading into the CFP. Alabama looked solid down the stretch but how did they compare to the other semi-finalists.
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic
#4 Cincinnati Bearcats
The Bearcats are the only undefeated team in the FBS at the end of this chaotic season. This may be partially due to the fact that they play in a Group of 5 conference, the American Athletic conference, but can also be attributed to the many years of building Luke Fickell has done for his program, including the mentoring of star senior quarterback Desmond Ridder. Throughout the season this Bearcat squad has dominated opponents from beating #5 Notre Dame in South Bend 24-13, but not as close as the score makes it sound, to blowing out teams like Temple 52-3 consistently. In the middle of the season, however, there was a tough stretch against some teams that weren't even bowl eligible. Cincinnati squeaked out a win over navy 27-20 and 31-12 win, that didn't open up until late in the game, over an even worse Tulane team (the Green Wave finished with 2 wins). Overall though the Bearcats have proved their haters wrong and were the first ever team from the Group of 5 to crack into the CFP.
Grade: A-
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide
Another season with Alabama atop the CFP rankings. This time ,however, they are led by a Heisman winning quarterback, Bryce Young. Things haven't been as easy this year as years before though. The Crimson Tide suffered a heartbreaking loss to Jimbo Fisher's Aggies on October 9th to break their win streak of 19 games, going all the way back to the 2019 season. In the final game of the regular season the Crimson Tide were locked in a tight battle with a 6-5 Auburn team. Late game heroics from Bryce Young saved Alabama's season as they went on to clinch the game in 4OT. All is not lost for the Crimson Tide's grade, however, as they doubled up a very good Ole Miss 42-21 and blew out the best defense in the country, the previous #1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs, 41-24. The Crimson Tide showed spots of weakness but found their stride at the right time to seize the #1 seed for the CFP.
Grade: A
Capital One Orange Bowl
#3 Georgia Bulldogs
Led by a dominant defense the Bulldogs were the team to beat all season. They were undefeated until the SEC championship and looked unstoppable. Their closest game all regular season was a 10-3 win over the Clemson Tigers and even that game didn't feel close as the Tigers could not move the ball down the field. The SEC game was a different story. The Alabama offense picked apart the best defense in the nation and Georgia didn't know how to respond to being behind. Not having a great offense, the Bulldogs depended on their opponents not to be able to score and when Alabama did it caused havoc for this Georgia team. Georgia was impossible to score on all season but they met their kryptonite in Alabama, this caused the whole team to unravel at the wrong time. How will they respond when they have have to play a capable Michigan offense.
Grade: C+
#2 Michigan Wolverines
The Michigan Wolverines finished the regular season as 1-loss Big 10 champs. They started off the season hot, jumping out to 7-0 causing many to key in on their potential. They suffered a disappointing loss to a then undefeated Michigan State Spartans making many turn away thinking their 7-0 start was a fluke. It wasn't. They sneakily put together a great season going forward. In the final week of the regular season the Wolverines went out and beat a great Ohio State team convincingly (in the snow). After that emotional win nothing was gonna stop them from beating Iowa in the Big 10 championship. They did so in convincing fashion, 42-3, and have solidified themselves in the eyes of many college football fans.
Grade: B+
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