I admit that, before the season, I would never have bet we would be here talking about stats and history this late into January.
Heck, I didn't think we would've even gotten to January, since this column comes out the Friday before gameday.
And yet, here we are, giving it one final go as Georgia gets ready to take on mighty Alabama in the National Championship in Atlanta.
Again, like last week, my goal here is to give you stats that you won't find other places, so don't expect "the last time Georgia played for a national championship" or Nick Saban's numbers versus his former assistants.
(He's 11-0, as you probably know.)
I'll do my best to be unique.
So, let's dive in.
The last time...
1) These teams met:
I remember the day well. It was a wet, soggy, miserable day in 2015, when the undefeated Bulldogs hosted the one-loss Crimson Tide in Athens.
It wasn't pretty.
What became Mark Richt's final team Between the Hedges was absolutely dominated in all phases of the game, losing 38-10 in a deluge.
The only bright spot on the afternoon came early in the fourth quarter, when Nick Chubb burst up the middle for an 83-yard touchdown.
Otherwise, it was a day to forget.
2) Georgia played a current SEC member in a bowl game:
I'll start out by saying the Bulldogs have never played an active conference member in a bowl game, the way Alabama and LSU did in 2011.
But, they have played a few teams who would later join the SEC, including the 2009 Independence Bowl.
In game highlighted by Brandon Boykin's third kickoff return touchdown of the season, Georgia knocked off Texas A&M 44-20 in Shreveport.
The Aggies would join the SEC in 2012 alongside Missouri.
3) Alabama lost in the state of Georgia:
There's a weird sort of connection between the game I'm about to tell you about and the 2017 Georgia Bulldogs.
The last team to beat the Tide in the state of Georgia was Urban Meyer's 2008 Florida Gators, which knocked off 'Bama 31-20 in the SEC Championship Game.
What's the tie? Until the Dawgs knocked off Auburn a month ago, that 2008 SEC Championship represented the last win by the SEC East.
And by the way, since that '08 game the Crimson Tide are an astounding 11-0 in Georgia, including five SEC titles, one College Football Playoff game and the aforementioned victory in Athens.
4) Georgia went undefeated at neutral sites:
It has been a full decade since the Dawgs last went undefeated on neutral fields.
The 2007 team was the last to do it, posting a 2-0 record with wins in Jacksonville (42-30 over Florida) and New Orleans (41-10 over Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl).
Since then, every Georgia team has either lost to the Gators ('08-'10, '14-'16) in Jacksonville, the SEC West in the conference championship ('11-'12) or a bowl opponent ('13).
Or in some cases, a combination of those.
So far, the 2017 Bulldogs are 2-0 on neutral fields (4-0 if you include the "road" environments of Notre Dame and Georgia Tech) with wins over Florida 42-7 and Auburn 28-7 in the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party and the SEC Championship, respectively.
5) Alabama lost to a freshman quarterback:
A win Saturday would only propel the legendary status of freshman QB Jake Fromm, whose sudden rise to the top has played no small part in Georgia's success so far this year.
A win Monday for Fromm would make him the first freshman QB to beat the Crimson Tide since Trevor Knight, who guided Oklahoma to a dominating 45-31 win in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2, 2014.
But, there's a caveat. Knight was a redshirt freshman in that game.
So what about...
BONUS: Alabama lost to a true freshman quarterback:
For this one, we need to jump back to 2007, Saban's first season in Tuscaloosa.
That inaugural team would finish 7-6, including a stunning 17-12 to Mississippi State in Starkville.
The Bulldogs were quarterbacked by Wesley Carroll, who started all 13 games as a true freshman that year, including the upset over the listless Tide. He would go on to transfer to Florida International.
6) Georgia beat five ranked teams in a season:
The Bulldogs already own wins over No. 24 Notre Dame, No. 17 Mississippi State, No. 4 Auburn and No. 2 Oklahoma, with No. 4 Alabama waiting on Monday.
A win would put Georgia at a mark it hasn't reached since 2007.
A decade ago, a sophomore QB named Matthew Stafford led the Dawgs to an 11-2 season, that included wins over No. 16 Alabama, No. 9 Florida, No. 18 Auburn, No. 22 Kentucky and No. 10 Hawaii.
7) Alabama failed to have a 1,000-yard rusher:
This is not a streak that figures to fall, with RB Damien Harris needing only 17 yards to top the 1,000-yard mark.
But what the heck, let's throw caution to the wind and see what it would be, just in case the Junkyard Dawgs play lights out on Monday.
Any guesses?
Here's a hint: It's probably not as far back as you'd expect.
Give up?
2014, when both Derrick Henry and T.J. Yeldon were roaming the 'Bama sidelines.
Both talented backs came up just shy of 1,000 yards, with Henry leading the way at 990 and Yeldon right on his heels at 979.
8) Georgia had touchdown passes from only one player all season:
The Bulldogs have thrown for 23 touchdowns this season, all of which have come off the hand of Fromm.
Neither Jacob Eason nor Brice Ramsey threw a touchdown in mop-up duty, nor has a trick play yielded a touchdown pass from a wide receiver or running back.
If it holds through Monday (don't be surprised if it doesn't — bags of tricks tend to be emptied when there's a championship to be won), it would mark the first time since ... last year.
In 2016, all of Georgia's 16 touchdown passes were thrown by Eason. Neither Greyson Lambert nor P Marshall Long, who completed his only pass for 29 yards, threw a touchdown.
So, that begs the obvious follow-up...
BONUS: Georgia had touchdown passes from multiple players in a season:
Let's go back to 2015, just one year further back on our timeline.
That year saw three different Bulldogs find the end zone through the air, with Lambert connecting on 12 such passes, and Ramsey and WR Terry Godwin chipping in one apiece.
#FireBobo
9) Alabama lost the turnover battle:
The Crimson Tide have lost the turnover battle to only two teams this season.
Let's have another round of guesses before we answer.
(Pause for effect.)
If you guessed back-to-back games against Arkansas and Tennessee, you'd be correct!
Keep in mind that 'Bama beat the Razorbacks and Volunteers by an aggregate score of 86-16, and yet lost the turnover battle to both of them, 2-1 in each contest.
Since then, the Tide have gone five straight games without losing the turnover battle.
10) Georgia improved by six wins from the previous year:
The 2016 Bulldogs, as you may recall, finished 8-5, with a ho-hum win over TCU in the Liberty Bowl.
A win Monday would put Georgia at 14-1, an improvement from year-to-year not seen since ... 1980.
(I want to take a quick side step, and let you know some behind-the-scenes stuff about this column. You see, I normally start leafing through box scores, records, etc. and see if any trends pop out to me. Like, 'Huh, Georgia is always winning the rushing yards category. I wonder how far back I have to go to find one where they didn't win that stat?' Sometimes, I don't get very far back, and other times I wind up digging for what feels like hours. When I started digging this one, which thankfully didn't take very long, I honestly had no idea the immensely obvious parallels it has to this season. I actually sort of snort-laughed at my computer, if you know the sort of noise I'm talking about. I had to do a double-take when I saw it was 1980. Okay, back to your regularly scheduled programming.)
The 1980 team, as you well know, finished 12-0. That was a six-win improvement from 1979, when the Bulldogs finished 6-5 and failed to make the post-season.
***
This is the part of the column where I give my predictions and analysis.
Alabama has been hovering at about a three-point favorite for most of the week, which means the Vegas folks think this game is fairly evenly matched, but the Tide have a slight edge in terms of coaching and experience.
I have no idea why I think this. Perhaps it's wishful thinking.
But I keep growing more and more confident in a Georgia win. Something just feels right about it.
Here's to hoping I'm not wrong, which isn't totally unprecedented.
Dawgs win it 24-17. Defense makes a play late to seal it.
