Nolan Smith reacts to the suggestion Georgia has a mental block to Alabama

Georgia has had plenty of chances to beat Alabama over the years. There was the 2012 SEC championship game when the Bulldogs lost 32-28 and the 26-23 heartbreaking defeat in the 2018 College Football Playoff national championship, just to name a couple. Kirby Smart’s teams have been right there with the Crimson Tide, but just haven’t been able to get over the hump and hand Nick Saban’s program a loss.

Just over a month after Alabama beat Georgia, 41-24, in the 2021 SEC championship game, the longtime opponents are set to face off yet again next Monday in the 2022 College Football Playoff national championship. While the Tide easily took care of business against the Bulldogs in the SEC title game, Georgia’s focused on putting together a much better performance this time around.

Heading into the national championship, Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith was asked if the Bulldogs had a mental block to Alabama, simply because they haven’t been able to beat the Crimson Tide in recent years.

“I’ll say this, I said it when I was a freshman: Every man wakes up, puts his pants on one leg at a time. There’s no such thing as a mental block,” Smith said. “The keyword is in your head. That’s mental. You’ve got to go out and do it, get it out of your head.

“I don’t think it’s a mental block. I think the first time we played them we gave up a couple big plays. You change three plays in the game, the game could be different. One of those plays were on myself. I should be more aware to jump on the ball instead of pick it up and run. You can’t have small mistakes in those big games because it’s a game of inches. As we watched the film over and over again with our coach’s comments, we learned it’s a game of just small inches.”

No. 1 ranked Alabama and No. 3 Georgia are scheduled to kickoff at 8 p.m. ET Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, with ESPN carrying the national broadcast. The Bulldogs are 2.5-point favorites, with the over/under currently set at 52 total points.

Stetson Bennett: ‘I’m preparing my butt off’ for Alabama

Heading into Monday night’s game, Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett made it clear that he’s working hard to prepare for facing Alabama again. After completing 29-of-48 passes for 340 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in his last outing against the Tide, it’s no secret that Bennett would like to clean up his play some – especially in the national championship game.

“I’m just treating it as another game and I’m preparing my butt off, and everybody on this team is,” Bennett said. “But the reason we’re doing that is because we respect the heck out of Alabama and the team they are. And we know we’ll have to give it our best shot to win this game.”