Former UGA Linebacker Davin Bellamy joined Dukes & Bell to talk about the National Championship game and Bellamy talked about what happened in the 2017 National Championship game when Alabama put Tua in.
Davin told the guys they were completely blindsided when Saban put Tua in the game.
“We were completely blindsided, we didn’t prepare for him at all. Even our rush plan was to keep Jalen Hurts in the pocket, not saying that he can’t throw but we kinda knew we would have a better chance of containing him if we made him throw from the pocket,” Bellamy said. “So when they came out in the second half with Tua we didn’t prepare for it at all, a guy that can make all the throws, a guy who can escape and still keep his eyes downfield, I mean he just did it all and was kind of a secret weapon for them. Because honestly I thought we had the game in the bag with Jalen Hurts in there, but when you put Tua in there it opened up a whole different side of the playbook that we just weren’t ready for.”
Bellamy talked about how it changed the game for the Georgia secondary once Tua came in.
“Being more detailed with our safeties, you’re playing a right handed quarterback all game so you’re leaning to one side and then the second half you’re playing a left handed quarterback, the whole game you’ve been leaning to the opposite side. Then the last play of the game he looks you completely opposite and throws it, it kinda switched everything up, and even to the last play of the game I think that was the big thing, you kinda just get used to fooling with a right handed quarterback as a safety trying to trick his eyes. Then when a left handed quarterback comes in that you have no film on, you kinda can’t trick him with your eyes, he kinda tricks you. It definitely was their ace card for that game.”