Welcome to our countdown! We are less than six weeks before the first game. Each day leading up to the season opener, Patrick Garbin and I will each show three unique and creative ways why we think that number is special to the Dawgs. 38 Special has been a southern rock staple for over 40 years, having big-time success in the early-to-mid 80’s. The Jacksonville, Florida band had two songs reach No. 1 on the U.S. Mainstream Singles Chart and several others reach the top ten. Recently, some fools and I went to see them in concert and the band still sounds the same. Their rockin’ sound reminded me of some memories from when I was much younger—similarly to these Georgia football memories in regards to the number “38”:

By Dave McMahon—Twitter @dave_mc_stats

3 – With my first 38 stat, I decided to go with two former quarterbacks that had some good moments, but some not so good moments for the Dawgs, as well... Mike Bobo officially passed for 38 career touchdowns (he had one more in a bowl game) and Quincy Carter officially had 35 (but, counting his three bowl touchdown passes, he unofficially totaled 38), and both had mixed results at quarterback. Bobo was Eric Zeier’s backup as a freshman in 1994, and started off well as a sophomore, but fractured his knee four games in. He had six touchdown passes and two interceptions in those seasons combined. In Bobo’s junior season of 1996, he had 13 touchdown passes but 16 interceptions, while barely completing 50 percent of his passes. He came back as a senior in 1997 to pass for 19 touchdowns and was intercepted just eight times, while completing 65 percent of his passes. In Bobo’s final game of his career, he completed 26-of-28 passes, including 19 straight as Georgia defeated Wisconsin in the 1998 Outback Bowl. Quincy Carter, who had originally signed with Georgia Tech, but decided to play baseball instead, was Georgia’s starting quarterback the following season in 1998. Carter did very well his freshman season, passing for 12 touchdowns and rushing for four more scores. He engineered big wins at No. 6 LSU and in a huge comeback against No. 13 Virginia in the Peach Bowl. Carter’s sophomore season of 1999 was even better as he totaled 17 touchdown passes and five touchdown runs, while also leading another postseason comeback in a big victory over Purdue in the Outback Bowl. Entering his junior season, he was hyped up as a Heisman Trophy hopeful, but produced just six touchdown passes and two touchdown runs, and threw 10 interceptions, including five against South Carolina. Carter injured his thumb midway through the 2000 season, and his career at Georgia was essentially over.

2 – Mohamed Massaquoi was a very good wide receiver, who came from the very successful Independence High School in Charlotte, N.C. Mo-Mass had 158 career receptions for Georgia, including 38 his freshman season. His 38 catches as a newcomer in 2005 currently ranks as the fourth most by a Georgia freshman (only A.J. Green, Terrence Edwards and Malcolm Mitchell had more). Also, Mo-Mass’ 38 receptions was just one less than team leader Leonard Pope, and would be his second-highest total during his four-season tenure for the Dawgs.

1 – Jimmy (James) Orr wore No. 38 for the Bulldogs in the mid-1950s, and produced some pretty impressive receiving numbers for his time. Orr led the Southeastern Conference in receptions (24), and the nation in yards per reception (18.5) in 1955. Two seasons later as a senior, he led the SEC in receptions again (16). As a pro, Orr was even more successful, earning UPI Rookie of Year in 1958, and concluding his career with 400 receptions, including 66 for touchdowns.

By Patrick Garbin—Twitter @PGarbinDT

3—Trailing Houston 10-7 in early November of 1968 in Athens, quarterback Mike Cavan promptly moved the Bulldogs from their 9-yard line to the Cougars’ 22 in less than two minutes. With only 12 seconds remaining in the contest, junior placekicker Jim McCullough nailed a 38-yard field goal, ending the ballgame in a 10-10 draw. Outgained in yardage by the high-powered Houston offense nearly 2-to-1 (532-276), Georgia’s draw with Houston in 1968 remains arguably one of the most acclaimed ties—if there is such a thing—in Bulldog football history.

2—The career collegiate totals of 71 rushing yards on 21 carries for running back No. 38 Hilton Young seem paltry. Still, considering he was a 5-foot-7, 170-pound walk-on-turned-scholarship player, who had been a scout team defensive back as a freshman in 1974, the native Athenian deserves some credit (plus, as evident by the above photo, he undoubtedly had one of the sweetest hairstyles in UGA football history). But, more so, having hardly played varsity ball, and filling in only because of a rash of injuries, Young was part of Georgia’s 48-man traveling squad which ventured to Vanderbilt in 1975. There, he ran the ball a whopping eight times, scoring touchdowns from one and two yards out. A year later in Athens, Young scored a third touchdown against the Commodores on a 24-yard run, leading us to Pat’s Insignificant Stat of the Week: Of all the players who have rushed for at least three career touchdowns in Georgia football history, Young’s rushing touchdown percentage of 14.3 percent (three TD runs on 21 career carries) is the fourth all-time highest:

3—A native of Lumberton, N.C., No. 38 Tim Worley originally planned to attend and play football at Oklahoma until his mother intervened, and the blue-chip recruit wound up signing instead with the University of Georgia—his fourth choice. In his freshman season of 1985, Worley was second on the team with 627 rushing yards and first with 10 touchdowns scored. In the fourth game of the 1986 season, he was lost for the year with a knee injury and ruled academically ineligible a year later in 1987. Entering his junior season of 1988, Worley was considered one of the most talented running backs in the history of the school but had little to show for it. That, however, would soon change. Six games into the season, Worley was seventh in the nation in rushing and fourth in scoring despite not having started a single game as the backup to first-string tailback Rodney Hampton. Regardless, UGA began hyping Worley as a Heisman Trophy candidate in what was believed to be the first time a reserve had ever been promoted by any school for the trophy. By the end of the 1988 season, there was no Heisman for Worley—not even a top-10 finish—but some remarkable accomplishments: 1,216 rushing yards, 18 touchdowns scored, two touchdowns passing, a 34.3 kickoff-return average, and first-team All-American recognition. Immediately following the season, he declared early for the NFL Draft, where he would be the seventh overall pick. Personally, fond memories of mine involving Tim include two notable touchdown runs of his—both against Florida but separated by three years—each proving to be “nail-in-the-coffin,” game-clinching scores: Worley’s 89-yarder in 1985, securing a 24-3 victory over the top-ranked Gators, and his 51-yard jaunt in 1988, clinching a 23-point win in Jacksonville: