Kickoff countdown: Who wore it best? #77

UGASports is counting down the days until the Bulldogs’ 2024 season opener. For each day in our countdown, we will reveal our opinion of the best player in Georgia football’s history to wear that particular jersey number.

With 77 days before kickoff, UGASports selects Bill Stanfill as the best Georgia player to wear jersey number 77.

Position: Defensive Tackle

Hometown (High School): Cairo, Georgia (Cairo HS)

Height/Weight: 6-5, 245

Lettered: 1966-1968

Stats: 1 career interception (tackles, tackles for loss, sacks, passes broken up, etc., not kept at UGA until the 1970s-1980s).

Career: Although his collegiate career ended more than 55 years ago, the late Bill Stanfill remains one of the top defensive players—if not the top defender—in UGA history. Stanfill was a three-time All-SEC honoree, including when he was the only underclassman defensive starter on Georgia’s 1966 SEC championship team. That season, he was a primary reason for an exceptional effort in the second half against favored Florida, giving quarterback Steve Spurrier absolute fits in leading to the Bulldogs’ historic 27-10 upset. Stanfill would later identify the victory over the Gators as his most memorable moment in football. Two years later in 1968, he was elected the team’s overall permanent captain and became just the sixth Bulldog ever to be recognized as a consensus First Team All-American. Stanfill was also the first of only two Georgia players to date to receive the esteemed Outland Trophy as college football’s top interior lineman. Selected by the Miami Dolphins, he was the No. 11 overall pick of the 1969 NFL Draft. In 1998, Stanfill entered the College Football Hall of Fame, where he is currently one of just two Georgia defensive linemen/linebackers who have been inducted.

#77 Honorable Mention: OT- Mike “Moonpie” Wilson (1974-1976); OL- Isaiah Wynn (2014-2017); OT- Trinton Strudivant (2007, 2009-2011)