The College Football Awards were held in Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame tonight and the game’s best were celebrated ahead of this weekend’s Heisman Trophy presentation. Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa won big tonight as he took home the Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Award for best player in the nation. Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray received the Davey O’Brien Award for best quarterback.
Among other notable names to receive awards tonight are Georgia Cornerback Deandre Baker and Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly. I caught up with Baker to discuss Georgia’s secondary learning from the loss to Alabama to prepare for Texas in the Sugar Bowl, Tagovailoa’s relationship with Jalen Hurts this season after both have won huge games for Alabama and Kelly making his case for why Notre Dame is deserving of being in the playoff after finishing undefeated despite criticisms of them not having to play in a conference championship game.
Baker reflected on the loss to Alabama and discussed the game plan that the UGA secondary had prior to the game. They will now look to bounce back against Texas in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.
“At the beginning of the week, we came together as a secondary and we knew we had to go against one of the top receiving cores in the nation.(Alabama) We knew we had to shut them down to put ourselves in a position to win.”
Notre Dame ran the table in 2018 and went undefeated at 12-0. Despite the dominance, there has been some criticism against Head Coach Brian Kelly’s team because they’re independent and don’t have to play in a conference championship game. I discussed that with Kelly.
“I think that’s always going to be a great conversation, said Kelly. “We’ll be out there and that’s why we pick the schedule that we do. We play a robust schedule and it’ll have to stand up to teams that play 13 games.”
Tagovailoa suffered a tough leg injury in the SEC Championship Game but things worked out as backup Jalen Hurts put on a show and led Bama to the second half comeback win over Georgia. It was a remarkable journey for Hurts as he was benched for Tagovailoa in the national championship game against Georgia this past January. Despite QB controversies, Hurts and Tagovailoa have maintained a strong relationship. I spoke to him about this.
“It’s a testament to Jalen’s hard work he’s put in in the offseason,” said Tagovailoa. “It shows the kind of character he has and the kind of background he comes from with his family’s support. I think it’s something very special for him to have stayed and I think he deserves everything that’s coming his way right now.”
Notre Dame will face Clemson in the Cotton Bowl to move on to the national championship game and Alabama will play Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. UGA will prepare for Texas in the Sugar Bowl. While we still have less than a month to go until the major bowl games arrive, the College Football Awards got to celebrate all of the top players who’ve made the NCAA great this fall.
Flip the pages to check out the full interviews with Brian Kelly, Deandre Baker and Tua Tagovailoa at the College Football Awards.
