“I wouldn’t say I don’t like talking about it,” Ringo said this weekend on another College Football Playoff Championship media day, “but I feel like there’s a lot more for me than this specific game, sir.”
Now that the second Monday of 2023 has arrived with Georgia still ruling the country – ranked No. 1 and 14-0 entering a final fight with surprise runner-up TCU (13-1) “Ringo’s Bulldogs have rare chances. They could become the first national champion to repeat in 10 years, and they could flood Ringo’s interception with new memories.
If that’s not enough, his future years in the NFL just might.
“You don’t want to be defined by a game, whether it’s positive or negative,” said Georgia coach (and former Georgia defensive back) Kirby Smart. “Nobody wants to be defined like that. As coaches, we will never do that.
No, this challenge does not come from the coaches. This challenge comes from the Bulldogs mind people. From the stands in Indianapolis and from living rooms near and far, this population experienced a moment of intense emotion when Ringo crossed the goal line a year ago.
“As fans,” Smart said, “it will be hard to get over because this moment has been so long overdue and so many people associate this game with this game. But as important as this game is – Jalen Carter blocking the basket , it was a huge play in the game. [Quarterback] Stetson Bennett bounces back [from a fumble]. But it says a lot about Kelee that he doesn’t want it to define him. He wants to keep working.
Smart concluded: “It says he has a good mental makeup.”
So Ringo wants to leave other impressions.
That way people will think of him for a play and for other games.
“Exactly,” he said again.
“It’s a great feeling, honestly,” he said of his game. But: “Afterwards, I said to myself, this is not something that I want to identify with as my career, but just keep working and finding more things that I can do in my career and improve my game in every aspect that I can.”
“It shows how great he wants to be,” said fellow defensive back Christopher Smith.
There are former college players who made a game that never dies. They live, still remember this play, and some have to adapt so that the subject does not become boring. Say the names “Lindsay Scott” and/or “Buck Belue,” and the Georgian memories go back to one play – the former’s 93-yard hold by second and the 1980 distress against Florida.
More than three decades after his famous reception of Doug Flutie in 1984, former Boston College catcher Gerard Phelan said in 2015 that the game had come back every day. . . Single . . . daytime . . . because.
Just that week, he closed a sales call with “Any other questions?”
The potential customer replied, “How was it to catch that pass?”
Phelan thought it was “a pretty cool thing”.
If anything, Ringo might find a role model in Clemson’s Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfrow. As a redshirt sophomore in January 2017, he caught a two-yard touchdown pass with a second to the left to win the 2016 national championship over the ubiquitous Alabama but, like Ringo, he had a few college years left. By the time Renfrow finished, Clemson had another title, snatched from a 44-16 mayhem from Alabama in January 2019, even filling Clemson’s mindset with highlights.
Still, as the old saying goes — or not — a two-yard touchdown pass can’t equal a 79-yard interception return in the memorization department.
As Georgia prepares for a third national title game in the last six seasons with a chance of winning a second title, and its defense recovers from the fire it took on the State of the ‘Ohio in a 42-41 breakout in the Peach Bowl semifinalsRingo, a five-star high school freshman from Scottsdale, Arizona, after growing up in Tacoma, Washington, kindly recalled his play.
It started with 69 seconds left, with Alabama trailing 26-18, Alabama facing third-and-10 from Georgia’s 44-yard line, with Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young falling back to throw and with Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith heading to Young’s right side. with unpleasant intentions. It started with Alabama beating Georgia seven straight, including a previous national title game in January 2018 and three SEC championship games, and with Georgian minds still perhaps scared.
“We’re in deeper coverage, more like cover three,” Ringo said, “but I was playing close to [Alabama wideout Traeshon Holden]and when I turned to look for the ball, I see that the number two receiver [Slade Bolden] also ran a vertical route. . .”
The controversial final pitch of Young’s big season has been thrown.
“. . . and when I turned around, I saw the ball was a little bit back, and I just, just have football instincts, to go get the ball and play the ball and . . .”
He jumped up and down on his right foot just as, nearby on the touchline, Smart jumped up and down on both of his.
“. . . and after I finally agreed, I was like, ‘Just leave me behind my teammates,’ because I know they’re going to give me their hearts.
He fought his way through, getting a block from teammate William Poole, finding an open meadow, thinking he had a chance to make it all the way, getting chased by Holden, getting a block from Channing Tindall, finding the goal line, then getting chills.
“I watch on the big screen,” Bennett said. ” I can not see. I’m not that big. …and Kelee grabs the pickaxe. And that’s just – I mean, just everything. I mean, I can’t describe the feeling.
Soon he said, “I just started crying.”
“My mind was just, like, ‘Wow!’ said Ringo.
Georgian spirits were just, like, “Wow!” for all time. Over the months, Ringo continued to work on his game and Georgia fans thanked him when they saw him in Athens. Monday night and beyond, he and his teammates will try to make memories rain down.