Twenty-five years in, let’s look at UGA’s greatest football wins of the 21st century.
Those years have seen the program progress from celebrating the end of a lengthy losing streak to the sort of elite status where not winning a national championship seems like a “down” year.
In compiling this list, I first had to decide whether I wanted to go chronologically or by how big the games were.
I initially was leaning toward listing them chronologically, to document the rise of the program from mediocrity to its greatest heights ever. Naturally, that was the approach favored by Jason Hasty, UGA athletics history specialist at the Hargrett Library in Athens.
He felt that a list going by the “bigness” of the games would be weighted too heavily in favor of Kirby Smart’s tenure.
As Jason noted, there are many adult fans who weren’t born during the Jim Donnan and early Mark Richt years. “Having the list chronological would educate some folks about our program’s history and also keep games from the early 2000s from being completely overlooked,” he said.
But most other fans that I checked with favored ranking the games “in order of significance,” as my brother Tim put it.
Joel Provano said he thought ranking them in importance “would be much more interesting,” and retired Atlanta sportscaster Bill Hartman (after whose dad UGA’s athletic scholarship program is named) agreed, pointing out that a subjective ranking was more likely to create discussion among fans.
For instance, he said, “Since we are now in an elite status, I think the Natty against TCU does not deserve ranking in the top two. Fourth sounds right. Ho-hum, we hung 65 on 3rd-ranked TCU. No big deal.”
My son Bill agreed about ranking the games, observing that such a list obviously would be “subjective, but more fun for readers to debate.”
However, Bill suggested that it would be cool if I just stipulated that the natties and other post-season wins were big and instead focused my list on regular-season wins, as a throwback to when those games mattered and college football wasn’t all about the postseason.
In the end, though, I decided to acknowledge that these days it is indeed all about the postseason. So, I included both the regular season and postseason in picking the “greatest” games so far in the 21st century.
Of course, it’s a fine line between “greatest” wins, “most important” wins and “favorite” wins in rankings like this. What I offer below is sort of a conglomeration of all three approaches.
So, here we go:
1. Georgia 33-18 over Alabama in the 2021 National Championship Game. There’s no way for this game not to top the list. As I wrote at the time, Georgia’s first football national title in 41 years always was going to be sweet, but it meant even more for Smart’s Dawgs to have done it the hardest way possible — against an Alabama team with a Heisman-winning quarterback, led by the greatest coach the college game has known, and after losing seven in a row to Bama (especially the overtime national championship heartbreaker four years earlier).
2. Georgia 42-41 over Ohio State in the 2022 Peach Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal. The Buckeyes had a 38-24 lead entering the fourth quarter, but Stetson Bennett did his thing, engineering two touchdown drives to give Georgia a 42-41 lead with just under a minute left. Yes, I rank this playoff game even higher than Smart’s other national championship win, despite the fact that Georgia only won this game because the Buckeyes missed a 50-yard field goal. The deciding factor: This game actually was a de facto national championship contest between the nation’s two best teams.
3. Georgia 44-41 over LSU in 2013. This was one of the most thrilling days ever Between the Hedges. “GameDay” was on hand in Myers Quad and that day’s all-red Sanford Stadium crowd was, without a doubt, the loudest I’ve ever experienced from opening kickoff to final whistle. In a quarterback duel of former UGA roomies, Aaron Murray topped the Tigers’ Zach Mettenberger by throwing 4 touchdown passes as the No. 9 Bulldogs rallied to beat No. 6 LSU. An emotional Mark Richt was in tears after the game. A wonderful day to be a Georgia Bulldog.
4. Georgia 54-48 over Oklahoma in the 2017 Rose Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal. A friend in Pennsylvania, who’s not even a Dawgs fan, said it was “one of the best football games, pro or college or high school, I’ve ever watched.” It was the sort of back-and-forth game that television loves, with both teams racking up more than 500 yards of offense in a battle that went into overtime, where Georgia finally won it on a terrific touchdown run by Sony Michel, aided by a key block thrown by QB Jake Fromm, sending the Dawgs to the national championship game. My son, who was among the Bulldogs faithful in attendance in Pasadena, described it as the best athletic event he’s ever attended.
5. Georgia 65-7 over TCU in the 2022 National Championship Game. As TCU head coach Sonny Dykes could be seen saying on the sideline after yet another score by the Dawgs: “Wow.” As for my ranking this one here instead of higher, the game wasn’t particularly competitive, and Georgia already had beaten a better opponent. But as Jason Hasty noted, “how spoiled are we now that a game where we won a national championship is not one of the two or three best games in our history?” Still, he added, “it was nice to have a big game that wasn’t fraught with drama, for once. So many of our big games aren’t exactly easy on the nerves.”
6. Georgia 34-11 over Michigan in the 2021 Orange Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal. After a disappointing loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship game, Georgia bounced back in an impressive way to secure its place in that season’s national title game, scoring on its first five possessions. Plus, it’s always great to beat “Meechigan.”
7. Georgia 27-13 over Tennessee in 2022. Coming into the showdown Between the Hedges, the Dawgs were ranked No. 1 in the AP and coaches’ polls, but the Volunteers were the No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Vols’ offense was considered unstoppable, and yet the Dawgs stopped it before one of the most raucous crowds in Sanford Stadium history, with Tennessee not scoring a touchdown until there was just 4:15 remaining on the clock.
8. Georgia 42-7 over Florida in 2017. The Dawgs led this game 42-0 before the bench players gave up a meaningless touchdown with 2:42 left on the clock. As my son, who grew up in Spurrier’s heyday at Florida, put it: “It was the dream beatdown we’ve never seen in my time as a fan. … This was sweet.”
9. Georgia 34-14 over LSU in the 2005 SEC Championship Game: This upset victory over Les Miles’ No. 3-ranked Tigers featured D.J. Shockley quickly throwing two touchdown passes to Sean Bailey, who caught them right in front of me and my son at the Georgia Dome (thanks to tickets we were given by my boss, a Gators fan). This was the high point of my first season writing the Junkyard Blawg.
10. Georgia 28-7 over Auburn in the 2017 SEC Championship Game. The Tigers had given the Dawgs a beatdown three weeks earlier, which made this one even sweeter. Nick Chubb was at his best, breaking tackles with incredibly tough running. And talented freshman D’Andre Swift electrified the UGA-leaning crowd with a 64-yard TD run.
11. Georgia 20-19 over Notre Dame in 2017. An estimated 40,000 Georgia fans took over the Fighting Irish’s stadium in South Bend for this game, the first big indication that this season was going to be special. And Terry Godwin made a spectacular falling-backward, one-handed touchdown catch. It was a great win, though it wasn’t a great game of football, as the two teams combined to punt the ball 17 times (8 by Georgia) in a largely defensive struggle. Still, it was a game that indicated what was to come during the Smart era.
12. Georgia 13-7 over Auburn in 2016. This game in Athens saw an unranked home team that was a double-digit underdog upset its heralded visitor, giving first-year coach Smart his first win over a Top 10 team and his first victory over a big rival. Plus, Smart’s Dawgs held one of the nation’s best offenses to zero first downs in the second half. This was a Dawgs defensive performance for the ages.
13. Georgia 42-30 over Florida in 2007. The “celebration” win over Florida in Jacksonville, easily the best game Knowshon Moreno played in a Georgia uniform, as he racked up 188 yards and 3 touchdowns. Plus, there was that magnificent 84-yard Mohamed Massaquoi catch-and-run for a TD. Georgia got on the wrong side of SEC officials for quite a while by letting the Dawgs dance in the end zone, but it was worth it.
14. Georgia 45-20 over Auburn in 2007. The “Blackout” win in Athens, with the Dawgs scoring 28 unanswered points after the Tigers had taken a 20-17 lead. At the time, this was one of the most enthusiastic crowds ever at Sanford Stadium, though in subsequent years several games have topped it.
15. Georgia 23-17 over Notre Dame in 2019. This was one of the biggest “event” games I can remember. The entire Classic City was crazy. Temporary seating was added to Sanford Stadium to accommodate a record crowd of 93,246. Thousands of people who didn’t even have tickets streamed into Athens just to soak up the atmosphere, watching the game on TV as they tailgated. With both teams ranked in the Top 10, this clash had the feel of a playoff game even though it was early in the season. Aided by the stadium’s new LED lighting system, the roaring home crowd certainly was the 12th man that day.
16. Georgia 30-24 over Georgia Tech in 2009. The “We run this state” upset in Atlanta, in which the lightly regarded Dawgs ran it down the throats of a Jackets team that won the ACC championship (though the title later was vacated). It was my first game at Grant Field in decades, courtesy of my son. What a sweet walk that was back to the MARTA station amid all those downcast folks in gold and white and blue!
17. Georgia 63-3 over Florida State in the 2023 Orange Bowl. As I wrote at the time, the best college football team of 2023 wasn’t in the playoff. That was the statement Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs made emphatically with their steamrolling of previously undefeated ACC champion FSU at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
18. Georgia 45-21 over Clemson in 2014. Todd Gurley gained 293 all-purpose yards, scoring 4 TDs, and Nick Chubb literally ran out of one of his shoes in his true freshman debut, as the Dawgs beat Dabo Swinney’s Tigers, who in the second half were held to only one first down, 15 yards passing and no yards on the ground. The Sanford crowd’s noise level came close to the all-time high achieved the previous year against LSU (the game I ranked No. 3 above).
19. Georgia 27-25 over Alabama in 2002. A rare UGA victory over the Tide in Tuscaloosa saw the Dawgs prove to Pat Dye and everyone else that they were “man enough” to beat Bama, thanks to cool Billy Bennett’s winning field goal.
20. Georgia 24-21 over Auburn in 2002. This was the SEC East-clinching win over the Tigers with redshirt freshman QB David Greene’s fourth-and-19 “70-X-Takeoff” pass to a leaping Michael Johnson in the end zone. Probably the greatest win of Richt’s best overall season at Georgia, it led to the Dawgs’ first SEC title in 20 years.
21. Georgia 26-24 over Tennessee in 2001. The “hobnail boot” win over the Vols in Knoxville was Richt’s first “signature” victory at Georgia, with a late touchdown pass from David Greene to Verron Haynes also resulting in one of the great sportscasting calls of all time by Larry Munson. That play always draws a cheer when shown on the big screen at Sanford Stadium.
22. Georgia 45-16 over LSU in 2004. A big win over the Nick Saban-led Tigers, as David Greene threw 5 TD passes Between the Hedges. This is the game for which I passed up being best man in a wedding. Worth it.
23. Georgia 37-15 over Auburn in 2006. This upset win over No. 5-ranked Auburn shocked the college football world, especially since the Dawgs had lost four of their previous five games and AU was a two-touchdown favorite.
24. Georgia 41-30 over South Carolina in 2013. This one saw a terrific goal-line stand by the Georgia defense and the Dawgs closing out the game with a clock-eating drive that ultimately had Steve Spurrier signaling surrender by pulling off his headset. Sweet.
25. Georgia 21-10 over Tennessee in 2000. Jim Donnan’s 100th career coaching victory came in his last season at UGA. This game was the Bulldogs’ first victory over the Volunteers since 1988 after a nine-game losing streak. Dawgs fans stormed the field at Sanford Stadium and tore down the goalposts for the first and only time in school history.
Honorable mention: Georgia’s 26-23 “one and done” overtime win in Tuscaloosa over Alabama in 2007; the 10-3 victory over the third-ranked Clemson Tigers in Charlotte in 2021; the 49-3 season-opening win over Oregon in Atlanta in 2022; the 52-7 butt-kicking of Florida in 2018; the 41-0 win over Tennessee in Knoxville in 2017; the 51-7 whomping of Georgia Tech in 2002; the 30-3 win over Arkansas in the 2002 SEC Championship Game; the 24-20 win over Florida in 2011 (which featured two gutsy fourth-down touchdown passes by Aaron Murray); the 34-7 beatdown of Auburn in 2014; the 34-7 win over Florida in 2021 (which helped get Dan Mullen fired); the 24-21 pandemic season Peach Bowl win over Cincinnati; the 45-7 domination of Auburn in 2011, with two running backs topping 100 yards as Murray threw 4 touchdown passes; and the 34-0 road win over Missouri in 2014 as Nick Chubb stepped up big-time subbing for the suspended Todd Gurley.
Those are my picks; feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
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