A rematch of January's national championship game between Alabama and Georgia feels almost inevitable at this point. The two programs have separated themselves from the competition in the Southeastern Conference, but what separates them from each other?
Connor Riley joined The Other Side of the Glass to discuss the Georgia Bulldogs and how the reigning champions stack up against the favorites this season.
"Alabama has two great edge rushers (led by Will Anderson Jr. and Dallas Turner)," Riley started after a moment of thought. "But Georgia has the offensive tackles to counteract that."
These are two dominant teams with loads of talent to go between them. Both teams have flexed top-3 recruiting classes over the last few years that give them unprecedented depth. Ultimately though, it's the talent at the top that is the difference for Connor Riley at this point.
"Really I think it just comes down to Alabama having the two best players in this game in Bryce Young and Will Anderson." Riley told Chris Thomas. "Those two guys are singlehandedly capable of wrecking games."
Even as underclassmen last season, those two showed how good they were and both have a chance to be the first overall pick in the NFL Draft next April.
Young had an incredible season throwing for 4,872 yards and scoring 50 total touchdowns to only seven interceptions en route to winning the Heisman Trophy. Anderson had a case to be made that he belonged in New York, too. Not to be outdone, he led the way on defense with 17.5 sacks and 34.5 tackles for loss last season.
As we saw in the SEC Championship Game in December, the pair provides an edge for Alabama in 2022 that will be difficult to overcome. That said, the Dawgs have shown that they are just as capable of doing just that.
These two programs are on a collision course and the difference between the pair is small, but the presence of Anderson and Young are all too significant.