Kane Wommack found his freshman cornerback on the way off the field. Zabien Brown, the man who had just sealed Alabama football’s first SEC win with an end zone interception, saw his coach coming and stopped on the 10-yard line.
The two embraced, and Wommack spoke into the former five-star prospect’s left ear.
“He was saying, ‘Plays like that, you’re gonna remember for the rest of your life,’” Brown told reporters after the game.
Brown’s pick put an end to the weirdest game Alabama had played since its last regular-season SEC matchup– the Gravedigger Iron Bowl at Auburn. Just like in that one, it looked like the Crimson Tide was going to run away with it.
Jalen Milroe and the offense was rolling down the field at will, taking chunk after chunk of yardage. Meanwhile, Wommack’s defense had an answer for everything the Bulldog offense threw at it.
Alabama went up 28-0 in the second quarter. By halftime, it was 30-7, and Kirby Smart’s top-ranked Bulldogs looked beaten.
“Obviously we were not really prepared,” Smart said afterward. “That falls on me in the first half. We didn’t do a great job.”
After the break, Georgia nearly pulled it off. With Nick Saban off to the ESPN set, it was supposed to be Smart’s time to establish Georgia as college football’s preeminent power, and for a moment, it seemed he’d do it.
The Bulldogs put up three unanswered touchdowns. The last one, a 67-yard bomb from Carson Beck to Dillion Bell, gave them the lead with 2:31 left.
Bryant-Denny Stadium’s energy had been sapped. All the momentum was gone and an embarrassing early-season loss for DeBoer seemed imminent.
Then Jalen Milroe hit Ryan Williams, who somehow got his feet in bounds, twisted around and started running. Touchdown Alabama, a 75-yarder to vault both players into the Heisman Trophy conversation.
With 2:18 left, it was up to the defense.
“I was speechless, I didn’t even know what to say,” UA linebacker Jihaad Campbell said of Williams’ catch. “I was just like, defense, we gotta get back on them, we gotta make a stop.”
Just like it had been for the entire second half, that was easier in concept than in practice. Beck and the Bulldogs chipped away, and with 47 seconds left, Beck took a snap from the Alabama 20-yard line.
Then, Brown sprang into action.
“Coach Mo (Linguist), he kept stressing his vertical, his vertical game,” Brown said of the Tide’s defensive backs coach. “Back shoulder. This was coming. Earlier on, I had turned away from the back shoulder and I just knew, if I had the opportunity again, I was gonna turn to the man and the ball would be right there.”
Beck looked for Colbie Young just past the goal line, right in front of the Crimson TIde student section. Brown, in single coverage, turned the right way and grabbed the first interception of his career.
“It don’t even feel real to me,” Brown said. “I don’t even remember the play for real, I just, you know…”
The youngster was met first by fellow corner Domani Jackson, then mobbed by the rest of his teammates as “Sweet Home Alabama” rang out in Bryant-Denny.
Two kneeldowns later and the Bulldogs were vanquished, the win that had seemed so certain secured in the most stressful of ways.
