College Football

Five matchups that will decide Michigan vs. Georgia

Updated Dec. 29, 2021 2:27 p.m. ET

By Rob Rang
FOX Sports NFL Draft Analyst

Even more than the most passionate college football fans, NFL scouts love bowl games.

The time between the end of the regular season and the bowl games provides players an opportunity to heal. The unique matchups give scouts a chance to evaluate players against unfamiliar talent. It is often easy to see which players have dedicated themselves to leaving their college programs with one final win, while others have perhaps enjoyed a little too much of the banquet lines and other distractions that come with bowl games, suggesting that they might not (yet) have the maturity to succeed at the pro level.

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When one adds all of the ramifications of a College Football Playoff game such as the Orange Bowl, pitting blue-blood programs such as Michigan and Georgia, the stakes, of course, are even higher.

Fans want to watch this game New Year's Eve to see which program will be playing for a national title on Jan. 10. But from an NFL scouting perspective, there are far more important developments to watch than the scoreboard.

The following are the top five storylines and matchups that scouts will be monitoring at 7:30 p.m. ET Friday, when No. 2 Michigan (12-1) squares off against No. 3 Georgia (12-1).

1. Michigan’s running game vs. Georgia’s top-ranked defense is as good as it gets.

In perhaps this year’s best bowl matchup of strength vs. strength, the powerful Michigan running game faces the most formidable foe in the country in Georgia’s stout run defense, a unit that allowed just three scores on the ground all season.

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The Wolverines' offensive line was recently honored with the Joe Moore Award as the nation’s best blocking unit — and for good reason. Michigan led all Power 5 teams with 39 rushing touchdowns on the season, with star running back Hassan Haskins coming off the most dominant individual performance on the ground in the 117-year history of the rivalry with Ohio State, scoring five times. The burly, 6-foot-1, 220-pound Haskins won’t be intimidated by Georgia’s fearsome front, and he has proven incredibly reliable with the football in his hands, never losing a fumble in college, a streak of 465 touches going back to 2019.

While the senior running back stole the spotlight in "The Game," his running mate, sophomore Blake Corum, is shiftier and faster. He’s now healthy and feeling "great" after a sore ankle limited him against the Buckeyes.

Of course, the Wolverines could have the NFL’s leading rusher, Jonathan Taylor, in the backfield and still have difficulty finding running lanes against a Georgia defense absolutely loaded with NFL prospects.

Anchored by a pair of future first-round picks in 6-foot-6, 340-pound Jordan Davis at nose guard and the reigning Butkus Award winner, Nakobe Dean, at middle linebacker, these Bulldogs have plenty of bite.

Games of this magnitude are rarely determined by one "simple" matchup, but given Michigan’s reliance on the running game, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which the Wolverines can keep up with a more gifted Georgia offense if they are unable to run for at least 120 yards and a couple of scores — something no one (not even Alabama in the SEC title game) has accomplished against the Bulldogs this year.

2. Can the Georgia offensive tackles slow down Michigan’s pass rush?

While the most impactful matchup of the Orange Bowl will take place with Michigan on offense, the Wolverines' star edge rusher, Aidan Hutchinson, is easily the best player in this game, earning the top spot in my first 2022 mock draft. The 6-foot-6, 265-pound Hutchinson has terrorized opponents all year, blowing past offensive tackles once billed as future first-round picks to the tune of 58 tackles, including a school-record 14 sacks.

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His counterpart, David Ojabo, is an even twitchier athlete, at 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, and has stated his case as a future first-round selection as well.

A big part of the reason then-top-ranked and undefeated Georgia fell to Alabama earlier this month in the SEC title game was that the Bulldogs' tackles, senior Jamaree Salyer and redshirt sophomore Warren McClendon, surrendered three sacks and nearly twice as many tackles behind the line of scrimmage in the 41-24 loss.

At 6-foot-4 and 325 pounds, Salyer has the frame usually associated with guards, but he’s surprisingly quick off the ball, has good agility and anchors well against power. He projects as a solid day two selection next spring.

Hutchinson’s bull rush is as impressive as that of any defender in the country not yet earning an NFL paycheck, making this one-on-one matchup a fascinating one for scouts looking for help on either side of the ball.

3. Michigan’s talented secondary faces Georgia’s two-headed monster at tight end.

With Hutchinson, Ojabo and the rest of a quality Michigan front hoping to rattle Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett, don’t be surprised if the savvy signal-caller relies on the best duo of young tight ends in college football in true freshman Brock Bowers and sophomore Darnell Washington.

In fact, let’s be clear: Bowers and Washington are not just the best young duo in college football today. They also rank as one of the most impressive 1-2 punches at the position that I’ve come across in more than two decades of evaluating prospects for the NFL.

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Listed at 6-4 and 230 pounds, Bowers plays bigger and stronger than his weight class, showing soft hands and excellent body control to make difficult receptions look easy. He rewrote Georgia’s record books at the position in his first year with the program.

Perhaps the only thing that justifies the SEC’s Newcomer of the Year not being named a finalist for the John Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end is the fact that Washington (6-foot-7, 265 pounds) has even more measurables, providing stellar blocking at the point of attack.

The NFL’s longstanding rule of players not being draft-eligible until they are three years removed from their high school graduating class is a good one, designed to protect young players from the greater size, speed and physicality of the pro game.

Bowers and Washington, however, are already capable of playing in the NFL.

Graduate student Brad Hawkins and the ultra-athletic Daxton Hill give the Wolverines a capable duo of defensive backs to mitigate Georgia’s duo, but the Big Ten didn’t boast tight ends like these this season.

4. Can George Pickens star in the postseason once again?

Just as the Wolverines will get Corum’s fresh legs back in the running game, Pickens — the Bulldogs’ best receiver and a legitimate first-round prospect — is expected to see his most extensive time of the season.

Pickens (6-foot-3, 200 pounds) tore his ACL in the spring and played only briefly against Alabama earlier this month, though he flashed the big-play ability that helped his father become a Pro Bowl wideout, hauling in two catches for 41 yards.

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Standing out amid the bright lights is nothing new for Pickens, who caught seven balls for 135 yards in a Peach Bowl win against Cincinnati last year after earning MVP honors as a true freshman in the 2020 Sugar Bowl, with a dozen grabs for 175 yards and a touchdown to beat Baylor.

Pickens’ performance this postseason could go a long way toward determining whether he will make himself eligible for the 2022 NFL Draft or return to Athens for another year. The 2022 class of receivers is not as gifted as last year’s, lacking a consensus No. 1 target.

Marvelously athletic with ideal size, body control and sticky hands, Pickens could use a splashy performance against Michigan as a springboard to the first round.

5. Who steals the spotlight?

Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Georgia’s Kirby Smart are two of the best coaches in college football, in terms of both teaching the game and recruiting talent. As such, it should come as no surprise that this year’s Orange Bowl is full of future NFL draft picks, including a handful of 2022 first-rounders.

One of the "other" reasons scouts like bowl games, however, is that the additional time off allows coaches to scheme up new plays, giving previously overshadowed talents arguably their best opportunities of the year to show what they can do.

Take Michigan receiver Roman Wilson, for example. While the Wolverines are expected to stick to Harbaugh’s beloved ground game against Georgia, Wilson could be in line for some deep shots to try to spread out the Bulldogs’ defense. That was the strategy Michigan used earlier this year against Wisconsin — the only team in the country stouter against the run than Georgia — when Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara found the speedy sophomore for a season-high six grabs for 81 yards.

Ironically, those looking for a "surprise" performer for Georgia might want to look to the backfield. Junior running back Zamir White gets most of the attention (and deservedly so), but the agility, speed and soft hands shown by James Cook (Dalvin’s younger brother) bring a different element to Georgia’s offense.

If Michigan is able to get pressure on Bennett, Cook’s hands and route-running ability are so trusted by Georgia that the 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior will often split out wide. White leads the Bulldogs with 718 rushing yards and 10 scores, but Cook has nearly as much production on the ground (619 yards and seven scores) while leading Georgia’s running backs with 21 grabs on the season, including three touchdowns.

One of the most recognized names in the industry, Rob Rang has been covering the NFL Draft for more than 20 years, with work at FOX, Sports Illustrated, CBSSports.com, USA Today, Yahoo, NFL.com and NFLDraftScout.com, among others.