UGA 65-TCU 7: Dawgs Make It Back-to-Back College National Football Titles
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Luke Morey/The Clayton Tribune. Georgia Bulldog fans had plenty to celebrate on Monday night with a convincing 65-7 national championship win over TCU. Here local fans react to the TV broadcast of the first of two TD catches by UGA’s Ladd McConkey inside Clayton business Coach’s Bar and Grille. -
Selfie photo courtesy Ron Baumes. Michael Baumes, 11, and his father Ron made the cross-country trip in a car to watch the Bulldogs win the title in Inglewood, Calif. -
Submitted photo. TURNING BACK THE CLOCK: UGA head coach Kirby Smart is seen here in the 1990s serving as a community coach with the Rabun County Wildcats when his father Sonny was a RCHS assistant coach.
All Rabun County residents knew what Monday, Jan. 9, meant; a chance for history as the University of Georgia attempted to win back-to-back national championships.
While fans enjoyed the game watching on television, two Rabun County residents were among those who decided to see the national championship for themselves as they made the 2,307-mile trek to Los Angeles by car.
After winning their first national title in 41 years in January 2022, Georgia retooled despite losing 15 to the NFL Draft — including five going in the first round.
Only 11 teams have won back-to-back national championships since 1936 after UGA joined that elite group with a 65-7 beat down of Texas Christian University. The 65 points are the most in a title game, the largest margin of victory in FBS bowl history.
Ron Baumes, owner of R&M Heating and Cooling, and his 11-year-old son Michael, left Rabun County on Friday to travel across the United States to see the title game that has two Rabun County standouts – Braxton Hicks and Gunner Stockton – on the roster.
Along with Hicks and Stockton, UGA head coach Kirby Smart has ties to Rabun County as he years ago served as a community coach of the Wildcats while his father was a coach at RCHS.
Smart’s parents moved to Rabun County in the mid 1990s after his father coached at Bainbridge for two decades.
“We wanted that road trip experience,” Baumes said. “We got to see about eight to 12 states. We did a bit of a loop to see as much as we could. We did the same thing last year. We drove to Indianapolis (for UGA’s championship game against Alabama) and we thought it would be cool to do it back-to-back.”
Some of the highlights for Michael was seeing the CoolKicks shoe store, as well as the AllState Tailgate at the title game’s SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
“For me, seeing the whole West Coach Beach was really awesome,” Baumes said. “We saw Venice Beach and drove through Beverly Hills.”
The Baumes stopped in Arizona at Red Rock State Park, as well as the Purple Heart Trail in the outskirts of California.
“We were driving and I kept seeing signs for Red Rock and we had time,” Baumes said. “It was wild seeing how different everything is there.”
Once the Baumes got to the game, Ron called entry to SoFi Stadium “a breeze.”
“I was expecting normal city behavior, but everyone was really friendly and nice,” said Baumes, noting also seeing musical acts. “We got to see Pitbull and Kelsea Ballerini at the pregame, and entry into the stadium was pretty simple.”
The turnout for fans between TCU and UGA was split down the middle.
“It was absolutely shocking. It was about 50/50,” Baumes said. “We thought with Texas being closer, they would outnumber us. But at our hotel we stayed at, the Hilton LAX, there were about four TCU fans and the rest were Georgia fans.”
The Georgia fans were in for a show, as UGA put up 65 points in a rout of TCU.
Former walk-on turned scholarship quarterback Stetson Bennett IV stamped his UGA legacy with another performance for the ages with 306 yards on only 18 completions, four passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns.
The six touchdowns Bennett was accountable for tied the record for most by a quarterback in a national championship. The only other quarterback to do so was former No. 1 pick Joe Burrow in LSU’s 2020 championship run.
Bennett was named Offensive MVP in all four CFB games he played in, putting on his best performances when the pressure was strongest.
If another national championship featuring Georgia were to take place in Los Angeles, the Baumes said they would absolutely make the trip again.
“I think I would try to plan it out a little further in advance, obviously it’s hard to plan for but if we could’ve had a few more days to do things,” Baumes said. “Thank God I own my own business and my wife is taking care of the business so I don’t have to rush home.”
The Baumes, who left California on Tuesday morning, are soaking up all the sights out West before they return to Rabun County.
“We’re planning to go about halfway today and then stop and get a hotel,” Baumes told The Clayton Tribune Tuesday during a telephone interview. “But if anything catches our eye, we’ll stop and see it. We’re not too far from Las Vegas so we might drive by just to see the lights.”
Although they are now on the road home, the two were in no rush to leave SoFi Stadium on Monday night with all the celebration of the UGA victory.
“We stayed until they made us leave,” Baumes said. “We refused to leave until we heard Kirby’s speech and saw all the players.There’s just no words for how loud and enthusiastic it was. Our whole section [section 220] pretty much stayed together the entire night. It was cool, with the world we live in, this section of strangers who I didn’t know and the only thing we had in common was football. We spent the whole evening together, it was a nice feeling of camaraderie.”