ARLINGTON, Texas — Bryce Young is a former five-star recruit who won the Heisman Trophy in his first season as Alabama’s starting quarterback. Stetson Bennett is a former walk-on who became the starter at Georgia and never really lost the confidence of his teammates.

They will meet again in the national championship game after both threw three touchdowns in College Football Playoff semifinal games, only four weeks after Young and the Crimson Tide beat Bennett and the previously undefeated Bulldogs for the Southeastern Conference title.

“It’s been a long journey,” Bennett said, referring to his entire Georgia career, not just the gap between two crucial interceptions in the SEC title game on Dec. 4 and his offensive MVP performance in the dominating 34-11 Orange Bowl victory over second-ranked Michigan on New Year’s Eve.

That game is scheduled for Jan. 10 in Indianapolis, where the top-ranked defending national champion Crimson Tide and No. 3 Georgia meet in the final game for the second time in five seasons. Both teams are 13-1.

Bennett was a scout team quarterback during the 2017 season when Georgia won the semifinal Rose Bowl before losing in overtime to Alabama in the national championship game. He left to play a season in junior college before returning to the Bulldogs as a backup, then started half of their games last year and the past 10 this season.

Young sealed the first Heisman Trophy for a Tide quarterback by setting SEC title game records with 421 yards passing and 461 total yards in a 41-24 win over previously undefeated Georgia. That came a week after the 20-year-old sophomore led a late, game-tying 97-yard TD drive in the regular-season finale, a four-OT win at Auburn.

In a 27-6 win Friday over Cincinnati in the CFP semifinal Cotton Bowl, Young had a season-low 181 yards while completing 17 of 28 passes.