Ahead of the College Football Playoff title game two years ago, then-Georgia defensive lineman Jordan Davis found some inspiration from the NFL docu-series ‘Hard Knocks.’ Using a line assigned to Kyler Murray, Georgia players started calling Alabama quarterback Bryce Young the “gingerbread man,” a nod to Young’s lithe frame and athleticism.

The Bulldogs bullied Young in an SEC Championship rematch, which the Tide had won, for the first of back-to-back titles. The Tide turns to a very different quarterback in Jalen Milroe for Alabama’s latest revenge game. Not a pocket passer or off-platform thrower like Young, Milroe is a 6-foot-2, 220-plus pound wrecking ball with a cannon arm.

On Monday, Georgia players were asked if they had a nickname for Milroe ahead of this weekend’s conference title matchup.

“To my knowledge, no,” junior offensive lineman Sedrick Van Pran said. ” … I think there’s a lot of respect for what he can do on the field and definitely a very quality opponent for sure.”

UGA head coach Kirby Smart took it a step further: “I didn’t really know until I got further into the games and watching them last night how good he really is at what he does. And I think anytime you can scramble and extend plays, á la Stetson (Bennett), really anybody, it makes it harder to defend. … a physical guy to tackle, big, physical guy that has running back characteristics, but he has the ability to throw the ball, and he throws the ball well, especially off their play action game.”

Milroe has thrown for 21 touchdowns, ran for 12 more, for 2,526 yards while completing 66.4% of his passes. The biggest knock coming into the year was Milroe’s turnover tendencies and he’s thrown six overall and just one since Alabama’s bye week. Alabama’s first sub-40 point outing in a month was last weekend in the Iron Bowl, and well, Milroe managed to salvage 27 points and a history-making chuck to Isaiah Bond.

Per CFP-Graphs.com, Alabama’s EPA per pass play, or the measure of expected points added to its overall score every time a team throws, ranks 23rd overall while the offense is 18th on third- and- fourth-down success. Part of that is due to Milroe’s ability to make plays happen off-script. The game-winning fourth-and-31 play against Auburn burned nearly 10 seconds off the clock. Before that, Milroe nearly converted a third-and-20, eventually flipping it to a running back on fourth-and-short. In both instances, Auburn had a defender assigned to spy Milroe, but he sped past them.

“You can’t put a spy on that,” said Smart. “You gotta fit your gaps. You gotta do gap control. You gotta have fits. You gotta get knock-back. You gotta get off blocks. So, yeah, people do try to spy him, and their spy can’t get him on the ground. So everybody’s had a different plan of action, and everybody’s done it different ways, and we’ll try to put together what our best plan of action is.”

Georgia is the best team in the country at getting off the field on third- and fourth-down, respectively, preventing first downs at a 57.7% clip, per CFP Graphs. Junior defensive back Kamari Lassiter called Milroe “different from all the other quarterbacks” Georiga has beaten through its perfect 12-0 start.

Only three quarterbacks have thrown for 200-plus yards and multiple touchdowns against the Bulldogs: UAB’s Jacob Zeno, Vanderbilt’s Ken Seals and Florida’s Graham Mertz. Georgia won those games by 68 combined points. In facing mobile quarterbacks and run-first offenses like Auburn, Payton Thorne and Robby Ashford combined for 11-of-20 passing for 88 yards and one interception. On the ground, however, they managed 125 yards and a touchdown on 16 attempts, a game Auburn kept close into the fourth quarter.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].