Each summer, football coaches from around the Southeastern Conference gather for an annual rite known as SEC Media Days. During that event, coaches publicly assess their teams and answer questions about the upcoming season.

After hearing Georgia head coach Kirby Smart speak, Bradley was certain the Bulldogs would be among the nation’s most elite teams. In fact, he wrote in July, they will remain so for the next five years.

That column made an impression on Leo Willingham.

Willingham is our assistant sports editor, and, when big events warrant it, he works closely with a book publisher so that the AJC can produce keepsakes for our readers.

“When I read that Mark Bradley column,” Willingham recalls now, “I had an idea that we might be working on a book. Bradley is one of our best, and it had ‘Book profile’ written all over it.”

In a span of 12 months, we had published three commemorative books: one that marked the passing of Hank Aaron; a second that reflected on the Braves’ magical season in 2021; and a third a year ago that celebrated the Bulldogs football team’s first national championship in 41 years.

After Georgia beat Tennessee in early November, Willingham grew more convinced.

Throughout this past season, he collected some of our best stories, including that Bradley column, to chronicle yet another run at a national championship — a chance for back-to-back titles, the first of the college football playoff era.

“There is a sense of pride in working on the books,” Willingham says. “When someone comes to my house and starts thumbing through the book, I know that I played a part in making that happen. These books are going to be around a lifetime.”

Here’s a surprise: 90% of the book on Georgia’s season was completed long before the Bulldogs faced TCU in the national championship game.

But what if Georgia had lost?

Well …

There would be no book.

Willingham’s work would have been wasted.

Luckily, as it turned out, Bradley, Vivlamore and Willingham were right.

The Bulldogs really were that good.

Justin Beckett, one of our designers, usually focuses his attention on our front page.

But over the last several weeks, from his home office in Dayton, Ohio, he has been busy creating souvenirs.

Player posters.

Special front pages.

And, yes, those field editions that Coffman printed.

“For me, personally, this is what I’ve always wanted to work on: something big. When I’m having a tough day, these are the things that I can look at, and I remember that we’re having such a big impact on people’s lives.”

Indeed, we are. We’re chronicling the high points in people’s lives, and we’re reminded of that often. For instance:

That time the best man in Braves pitcher Spencer Strider’s wedding requested a print of one of our ePaper pages from that historic night the pitcher struck out 16 batters. (The best man knew it’d make the perfect wedding gift.)

That time fans lined up in their cars for miles, to take home a piece of history – our front page – after the Braves won the 2021 World Series.

That time the U.S. Department of Defense called, asking for our photograph of the dramatic flyover by the Thunderbirds during Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, so that the image could be displayed in the Pentagon.

“I tell that story anytime someone comes to our house,” says Beckett, who designed that Super Bowl page, among so many others. “To be a part of that … it’s something I’m going to remember forever.”

Like most keepsake pages, these special sections only work if we can write a headline that summarizes the excitement and drama in only one or two words.

For the Peach Bowl, we settled on CHEERS! It was a nod to the celebration that would follow, and a reference to the timing of the big game’s ending as we rang in a new year.

For the Bulldogs, the victory secured a trip to the CFP National Championship game in Los Angeles. And, just hours later, Beckett got started on another field edition. This one, anticipating an undefeated season and capturing the euphoria of back-to-back national championships.

That headline was much easier to write in advance.

It read, simply:

“PERFECT!”

Bluestein’s instructions to Tricia Cumiskey, an intern on our digital team, were as straightforward as they come:

“Meet me on the field. I’ll tell you who to give them to. If we lose, we burn them.”

But given Cumiskey’s short time here — she joined the AJC in September — Bluestein hadn’t met her. So, we texted him her photo. She knew what he looked like.

Amid the chaos after the game, Cumiskey couldn’t find Bluestein on the field. If we wanted to get a copy to Kirby Smart, as we hoped, time was running out.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein was on the field at the Peach Bowl handing out copies of the AJC's field edition after the Bulldogs' win over Ohio State.

“I’m trying to find Greg. He’s a needle in a haystack,” Cumiskey remembers. “Then I saw him, literally in passing, and he handed me copies.”

On the field, Cumiskey bumped into Bryan McClendon, an assistant coach.

“Where is Kirby Smart? I need Kirby Smart!”

“He’s already on stage,” McClendon told her.

“Can you please get these to him?”

And so it went. Soon, field editions were in the hands of cheerleaders, Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter, ESPN, coaches and staff.

Even Kirby Smart.

“Everyone was so thankful,” Bluestein says. “They just wanted a memento to celebrate.”

For Bluestein, it isn’t just another day at the office. These moments are particularly meaningful: He graduated from UGA; he was editor of the student newspaper, The Red & Black; and he’s a big Dawgs fan.

Of course, like all our reporters, he understands the importance of remaining objective when attending the game as a credentialed journalist. There can be no cheering from the sidelines.

“I was biting my lip, trying to restrain myself. It goes against every instinct of being a fan. But the whole time, you’re thinking, ‘Holy crap! This just happened!’”

Our digital team has a mandate: “We must be accurate, fast, engaging and eye-catching,” says Angel K. Brooks, who oversees ajc.com.

The Dawgs took over the ajc.com homepage during the Peach Bowl and National Championship games.

Her team lives by those words.

“It’s definitely exciting, an adrenaline rush on my end, juggling all of this,” says Rose French, a digital producer who does many things for our site.

“But I love my work. I love serving my local community and our AJC readers, wherever they may be.”

By now, you’ve learned that so much of our work must be done in advance.

That is why, long before the national championship game began, the team was busy.

Days earlier, on ajc.com, we launched our countdown clock to the big game. Kelly Audette, who oversees our social media team, began creating images — “social cards,” we call them — so that fans share the excitement on social media.

And, yes, Audette needed to prepare for the unthinkable. There was, after all, a chance that Georgia would lose.

It was a thought that David Collins, a senior manager who oversees the team that updates our ePaper overnight, refused to entertain.

“I was so confident, I blew off doing any planning for what the ePaper would look like if UGA lost,” Collins says. “Instead, I focused solely on a championship edition.”