The onslaught started not long after Michigan won the coin toss.
The Wolverines kicked off to Georgia, and the Bulldogs started the game’s inaugural possession from their own 20. The first play, a 9-yard dash by Zamir White, seemed promising enough. Then Bennett started throwing.
Adonai Mitchell caught a 16-yard pass. Brock Bowers picked up 35, and then another 7. A pair of White rushes pushed Georgia to first and goal.
Bennett, just more than four minutes into the game, quickly tossed the ball toward Bowers, who dashed in for Georgia’s first touchdown. No Wolverine touched him.
On Georgia’s second drive, Bennett completed three passes before a successful handoff to Kenny McIntosh, a junior tailback. McIntosh ran a bit, mostly toward the sideline, before he lifted his right arm and lofted a pass toward the end zone. Mitchell caught the 18-yard throw on the maize-stained “A” in Michigan’s block lettering in the end zone.
It gave Georgia a 14-point lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, it became clearer that the kind of magic that Michigan had been able to conjure all season was absent.
McNamara, a junior with 2,470 passing yards to his name entering Friday’s semifinal, connected with Roman Wilson to gain 42 yards and thrust Michigan to Georgia’s 19.
Nineteen yards, of course, offered 19 yards of potential tripwires to account for. But perhaps Michigan did not count on Nakobe Dean, the nation’s top linebacker, threatening behind the line of scrimmage. After all, Dean had arrived in Florida with 6.5 sacks over the entirety of his three-season career — not even half of Aidan Hutchinson’s tally this season at Michigan.