Ex-Georgia QB Aaron Murray defends TCU's performance vs. Bulldogs in national championship

Former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray was thrilled with the Bulldogs’ second straight title but defended opponent TCU after the 65-7 beatdown.

A lot of the conversation immediately turned to whether or not TCU deserved to make the final four, despite beating undefeated Michigan in the semifinals. The Horned Frogs were completely outmatched in the finals against the Bulldogs, who lost one game over the last two years en route to two titles.

Murray spoke on Sirius XM’s SEC Radio to praise his alma mater but made the case why TCU just ran into a brick wall.

“It feels like Georgia playing an FCS team,” Murray said. “It feels like a varsity football team playing a JV team. 32 first downs to nine first downs, Georgia nine of 13 on third down, TCU two of 11. 589 total yards to 188 yards, only 36 yards rushing for TCU throw on top of that, you know what three turnovers 1.3 yards per rush? It was as dominant as it could have been. And I want to say this like, because I know a lot of the narrative today has been ‘well TCU didn’t deserve to be there and this is what happens.’”

Murray immediately defended the Horned Frogs considering the season as a whole.

“TCU deserved to be there,” Murray said. “TCU won the football games, Alabama didn’t win the football games where they could have been there. And Tennessee didn’t win the football games when they could have been there. Clemson didn’t win the football games when they had opportunities to make it to the playoffs. 

“Michigan obviously lost it TCU. TCU won the games in front of them there. They are a Power Five team that had a great resume that beat Michigan. They deserved to be in that game. They just got outmatched by the best team in the country. This shouldn’t be a diss on TCU, this shouldn’t be a bashing of the Horned Frogs. This should be just more of a celebration of this Georgia team is just unbelievable. And they flexed those muscles last night for 60 minutes.”

After the game, Sonny Dykes tried to put a positive spin on the loss during his postgame press conference. He said that, while it wasn’t the outcome they hoped for, this kind of loss gave the program an opportunity to self-evaluate after having what worked for them all season long finally fail in emphatic fashion.

“That’s the good thing, I think, about our program and, really, our coaching staff. We’ll look in the mirror,” Dykes said. “That’s kind of what I told the players afterward. We’ve got to look in the mirror. And it all starts with me. Then it works down from there.”