Dave McMahon and Patrick Garbin

Welcome to our countdown! Ten percent of this countdown is done, but we don’t stop... In 90 days, Georgia will be facing North Carolina at the Georgia Dome. Each day leading up to the season opener, Patrick Garbin and I will show three unique and creative ways in regards to why that number is special to the Dawgs. Unfortunately, a number of celebrities passing away have made the news the last few months. David Bowie and Prince were both shocking deaths to me and, just this week, the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali passed away. I also recently heard that if Marilyn Monroe was still alive, she would be celebrating her 90th birthday this week. It is hard to think of her as 90. These icons will surely be remembered for years and years to come. And, that is what these articles are all about as well. Ultimately, we hope you remember these for years and years—or, at least for days. Anyway, if you have any more memories of what "90" means to you, please mention them at The Dawgvent.

By Dave McMahon

3 – Georgia has had its share of family members having played for the Dawgs. We have mentioned several already in the Counting the Days feature, including the Tereshinskis and the McPipkins. Here is another: Robert Geathers, number 90 for the Red and Black from 2001 to 2003. The whole Geathers family seemingly played football: his brothers, Kwame (who played for Georgia) and Clifton, his father Robert, and his uncle, Jumpy, were all contributors on the field. Robert had a good, but not great career for Georgia, managing five sacks and two interceptions in his career. In the NFL is where he grew up, playing 11 seasons for the Bengals, registering 34 sacks, including 10½ in 2006.

2 – Against Kentucky on November 23, 2013, there was a mixture of good and bad for the Dawgs. Georgia routed the Wildcats, 59-17, but senior quarterback Aaron Murray got hurt, playing his last game for the Bulldogs. He and backup Hutson Mason threw for a combined 372 yards with 11 different players making receptions. Two of these receivers each had 90 yards receiving, and they are most likely not the players you would think of: Todd Gurley (his 2nd-highest total of his career) on five receptions and two touchdowns, and Rhett McGowan, who set career highs in both receptions (7) and yards receiving. McGowan also scored a touchdown—one of three he had during his collegiate career.

1 – As everyone knows, Georgia has had some great running backs throughout its football history. One back that gets forgotten is Kregg Lumpkin, who fought injuries while sharing playing time throughout his career with the Dawgs. Still, he managed to rush for 1,700 career yards 15 touchdowns. Ninety of those rushing yards came in the 2004 Capital One Bowl against Purdue. Five years earlier in the 2000 Outback Bowl, the Boilermakers had raced out to an early advantage before the Bulldogs won the game in overtime. This time, it was Georgia that took an early 24-0 lead thanks to three David Greene touchdown passes (two to Fred Gibson and one to Reggie Brown). Quarterback Kyle Orton and Purdue answered back and, before you knew it, the game was tied at 24-24 heading into overtime. In overtime, it was Lumpkin who answered and scored a 1-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play. Purdue tried to retaliate on a fourth-down play and Orton threw incomplete, but Georgia was offsides, giving the Boilermakers another chance. The next play, Georgia linebacker Tony Taylor came up big, intercepting Orton, and the Dawgs won, 34-27.

90 – by Patrick Garbin

3 – 90 is the number of career receptions made by tight end RANDY McMICHAEL (1999-2001)—the only Bulldog in history to make exactly 90 catches. His 90 resulted in just three seasons and included five touchdowns while covering 1,213 yards. To date, McMichael’s 90 receptions are the third-most all time at Georgia for a tight end, trailing Shannon Mitchell’s 99 (1990-1993) and Orson Charles’ 94 (2009-2011).

2 – 90 is for No. 90 RAY GANT, a backup defensive tackle in 2003-2004 before starting in 2005 and 2006. He totaled 84 career tackles, 6 sacks, and an impressive 48 quarterback pressures—the seventh-most in Georgia history upon his departure. Still, just as much for his on-field play, Gant was known for his colorful personality and as being quite quotable. For instance, following the Bulldogs’ 15-12 comeback victory over Georgia Tech in 2006, the Elroy, Arizona native was asked if he thought the Jackets’ quarterback, the infamous Reggie Ball, became rattled during the contest:

“I think [Ball] was definitely rattled, especially toward the end of the game: he was pushing people, kicking people on the bottom of piles,” Gant stated. “Hey, he’s 0-5 against Georgia, 0-4, whatever it is. I might have kicked a couple of people if I was 0-4, too.”

1 – 90 is for No. 90 FREDDIE GILBERT, who was part of Georgia’s heralded 1980 signing class and reportedly “the most impressive athlete of them all”—apparently, even more so than the freshman phenom, Herschel Walker. Head coach Vince Dooley’s first signee from Griffin, Ga., Gilbert was the state’s triple jump champion besides being a highly-touted football prospect. At Georgia, starting at defensive end as a sophomore and senior, and defensive tackle as a junior in 1982, he was one of the team’s top standouts during the Bulldogs’ dominant reign from 1980-1983. Besides the great Terry Hoage, Gilbert was the only Georgia player to be a consensus First Team All-SEC honoree in both 1982 and 1983. And, following Bill Stanfill in 1968 and until David Pollack in 2002—a period of 34 years—Gilbert was Georgia’s lone defensive lineman to be named First Team All-American by the AP and/or UPI. For his career, he totaled 233 tackles and 16 passes broken up, while his 26 sacks, 43 total tackles for loss, six forced fumbles, and four caused interceptions all still rank high in the UGA football record book.