INGLEWOOD, Calif. — It’s hard to know when it was over. At the national anthem? The coin flip? The opening kickoff? Or perhaps even before that — the moment Noah Ruggles’s kick for Ohio State sailed far, far left on New Year’s Eve, giving Georgia a second life and scaring the Bulldogs straight in the process.
Whenever it was, the reigning national champion Georgia wasted little time turning the College Football Playoff title game into a coronation, laying waste to pesky little Texas Christian with a 65-7 thumping that was every bit as decisive as the score might have indicated.