“I wouldn’t say I dislike talking about it,” Ringo stated right here this weekend at one more College Football Playoff championship media day, “but I feel like there’s much more to me than just that specific play, sir.”
Now that the second Monday of 2023 has arrived with Georgia nonetheless ruling the land — ranked No. 1 and 14-0 coming into a closing bout with shock finalist TCU (13-1) — Ringo’s Bulldogs have uncommon possibilities. They would possibly develop into the primary repeat nationwide champion in 10 years, and so they would possibly deluge Ringo’s interception with additional reminiscences.
If that doesn’t reduce it, his future years within the NFL simply would possibly.
“You don’t want to be defined by one play, whether it’s positive or negative,” Georgia coach (and former Georgia defensive again) Kirby Smart stated. “Nobody wants to be defined like that. We as coaches will never do that.”
No, that problem doesn’t come from the coaches. That problem comes from the Bulldogs-minded inhabitants. From the stands in Indianapolis and from residing rooms close to and much, that inhabitants skilled a searing emotional moment when Ringo crossed the objective line a 12 months in the past.
“As fans,” Smart stated, “that will be hard to overcome because that moment was so long-awaited and so many people associate that game with that play. But just as big as that play is — Jalen Carter blocking the field goal, that was a huge play in the game. [Quarterback] Stetson Bennett bouncing back [from a fumble]. But it says a lot about Kelee that he doesn’t want that to define him. He wants to continue to work.”
Smart concluded: “It says he’s got a good mental makeup.”
So Ringo wants to go away additional impressions.
That manner, folks will suppose of him for one play and for different performs.
“Exactly,” he stated once more.
“It’s a great feeling, honestly,” he stated of his play. But: “Afterward, I told myself that that’s not something I want to identify myself as my career, but just continuing to work and find more things I can do in my career and better my play in every aspect I can.”
“It just shows how great he wants to be,” fellow defensive again Christopher Smith stated.
There are former faculty gamers on the market who made one play that by no means dies. They dwell on, ever reminded of that play, and a few should adapt so the subject doesn’t develop tiresome. Say the names “Lindsay Scott” and/or “Buck Belue,” and Georgian reminiscences whoosh again to one play — the previous’s 93-yard catch from the latter and direness in 1980 in opposition to Florida.
More than three many years after his well-known reception from Doug Flutie in 1984, former Boston College extensive receiver Gerard Phelan stated in 2015 that the play had come up each . . . single . . . day . . . since.
Just that week, he concluded a gross sales name with “Any other questions?”
The potential consumer responded, “What was it like to catch that pass?”
Phelan discovered it “a pretty cool thing.”
If something, Ringo would possibly discover considerably of a mannequin in Hunter Renfrow, the Las Vegas Raiders extensive receiver from Clemson. As a redshirt sophomore in January 2017, he caught a two-yard landing go with one second left to win the 2016 nationwide championship over omnipresent Alabama however, like Ringo, had some faculty years left. By the time Renfrow completed, Clemson had one other title, wrung from a 44-16 mauling of Alabama in January 2019, crowding even the Clemson mind-set with highlights.
Yet because the previous saying goes — or doesn’t — a two-yard landing go can’t match a 79-yard interception return within the memorability division.
So as Georgia ready for a 3rd nationwide title recreation previously six seasons with an opportunity at a second title, and as its protection recovers from the torching it took from Ohio State in a 42-41 escape within the Peach Bowl semifinal, Ringo, a five-star recruit out of a highschool in Scottsdale, Ariz., after a childhood spent in Tacoma, Wash., kindly recalled his play.
It started with 69 seconds left, with Alabama trailing 26-18, with Alabama going through third and 10 from the Georgia 44-yard line, with Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young backing as much as throw and with Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith coming round towards Young’s proper aspect with disagreeable intentions. It started with Alabama having crushed Georgia seven straight instances, together with a earlier nationwide title recreation in January 2018 and three SEC championship video games, and with Georgian minds maybe nonetheless frightened to shards.
“We’re in a deeper coverage, more like cover-three,” Ringo stated, “but I was playing close to [Alabama wideout Traeshon Holden], and when I turned around to look for the ball, I see that the number two receiver [Slade Bolden] was also running a vertical route . . .”
Up went the final contentious throw of Young’s nice season.
“. . . and when I turned around, I see the ball was a little bit underthrown, and I just, just football instincts, to go and find the ball and play the ball and . . .”
He leaped and got here down on his proper foot simply as, close by on the sideline, Smart leaped and got here down on each of his.
“. . . and after I finally came down with it, I was just like, ‘Let me just get behind my teammates,’ because I know they’re going to lay their hearts out there for me.”
He wove his manner by means of, getting a block from teammate William Poole, discovering some open prairie, considering he had an opportunity to make all of it the best way, getting chased by Holden, getting a block from Channing Tindall, discovering the objective line, then getting chills.
“I’m watching on the big screen,” Bennett would say. “I can’t see. I’m not that tall. … And Kelee catches the pick. And it just — I mean, just everything. I mean, I can’t describe the feeling.”
Soon, he stated, “I just started crying.”
“My mind was just, like, ‘Wow!’ ” Ringo stated.
Georgian minds have been simply, like, “Wow!” without end. On went the months as Ringo stored engaged on his recreation and as Georgia followers stored thanking him once they noticed him round Athens. On Monday evening and thereafter, he and his teammates will attempt to rain reminiscences.