After Mecole Hardman scored on a 54-yard reception at Missouri, I noted in my "observations" that if I had to speculate, the junior receiver-returner might have just become the first non-running back in UGA football history to score a touchdown in five consecutive games. Beginning with Alabama in last season’s National Championship Game and through the Missouri contest, Hardman reached the end zone at least once in each of the five games while totaling seven touchdowns (five receiving, one rushing, and one via punt return).
Still, an issue at hand, there were no readily available records—not even close—to see if Mecole had made his mark, so to speak, in UGA football history. So, I decided to find out—like, check the scoring details for every game Georgia had ever played—all 1,292 of them. If a number of databases I had created and other resources I had on hand didn’t have the information I desired, I researched for it, and, hence, I present, Pat’s Weekly Stat (that you’ll likely not see anywhere else—and probably for good reason).
Including all bowl games, I discovered there have been 59 instances in UGA history whereby a Bulldog player scored a touchdown in each of at least four consecutive games. The tables below feature all Georgia players (no matter the position) who scored a touchdown in at least six straight games, followed by only the non-running backs who scored a touchdown in at least four consecutive games—and with some touchdown-scoring-streak tidbits sprinkled throughout.
As far as my speculation that Hardman distinguished himself as the first non-running back in UGA football history to score a touchdown in five consecutive games, let’s just say I was partially accurate.
. . . The initial instance of a Georgia player scoring a touchdown in at least four consecutive games was when Bob McWhorter reached the end zone in the first six games of his Red and Black career in 1910. McWhorter would also have touchdown streaks of five and seven games. His seven-game streak during the 1912 and 1913 seasons was the first of what is now 15 times a Georgia player scored a touchdown in at least four consecutive games straddling two seasons.
. . . Beginning with the last game of the 1915 season through the first three contests of 1916, fullback Walter Neville tallied six touchdowns during his streak—a four-game run which included twice facing Clemson—while the rest of his team scored only four touchdowns.
. . . In 1930, All-Southern fullback Jack “The Ripper” Roberts scored in each of the season’s first five games, totaling 12 touchdowns, but wouldn’t cross an opposing goal line in any of the season’s last five games.
. . . In the middle of the 1945 campaign, Charley Trippi returned from military service only to be shut out by LSU; however, the star halfback would subsequently score a touchdown in each of the next six games through the end of the season. After serving in the military, Trippi scored a touchdown in 14 of his 18 games through the end of his Georgia career.
. . . Resulting in two separate streaks, Herschel Walker established the school record for most consecutive games scoring at least one touchdown (11) after scoring a whopping 21 touchdowns during a nine-game scoring streak of his the season before.
. . . Knowshon Moreno ended his career at Georgia by scoring touchdowns in each of the final four contests of the 2008 season, marking his third touchdown-scoring streak of at least four games. Before Moreno, and ever since, only two other Bulldogs totaled as many touchdown-scoring streaks—McWhorter and Walker.
. . . In 1946, quarterback John Rauch became the first Georgia non-running back to score a touchdown in at least four straight games when he totaled five scores, including a receiving touchdown, in the last four contests of the season. During the four-game stretch, Rauch also passed for six touchdowns.
. . . End Bobby Walston became the first Bulldog non-offensive back (i.e., excludes running backs and quarterbacks) to cross the goal line in at least four straight games when he made four touchdown receptions, averaging nearly 45 yards per score, in a four-game run during the 1948 and 1949 seasons.
. . . After Walston, and before quarterback Kirby Moore accomplished as much in 1967, or a stretch of 18 seasons, just one Bulldog scored a touchdown in each of four-plus games: halfback Bob Clemens, who rushed for five scores in a four-game run straddling the 1952 and 1953 seasons.
. . . In 1971, sophomore quarterback Andy Johnson rushed for at least one touchdown in the first four games of his varsity career. Four years later in 1975, sophomore halfback Kevin McLee did the same in the first four games of his varsity career, totaling an impressive nine touchdowns during the stretch.
. . . To date, of the 44 instances a Bulldog scored a touchdown in at least four consecutive games whereby the streak resulted in a single season, only three transpired during a losing campaign: halfback Cy Grant in 1932 (UGA had a 2-5-2 record), receiver Brice Hunter in 1993 (5-6 record), and running back Robert Edwards in 1996 (5-6 record).
. . . The UGA player who scored to the most touchdowns in a career but never scored a touchdown in at least four straight games was receiver Terrence Edwards, who totaled 32 touchdowns (including bowls) from 1999-2002. On the other hand, tailback Keith Montgomery reached the end zone five consecutive games in 1983, totaling eight touchdowns. For Montgomery, who was dismissed from the team that season and eventually transferred, the eight scores would be his touchdown total for the entirety of his UGA career. Perhaps even more striking is who appears to be the only non-starting player—or, at least, the only one who didn’t see significant playing time—to score a touchdown in each of at least four consecutive contests: halfback Frank Dudley who, in 1927, or back when reserve players saw very limited playing time, scored a touchdown in four straight games coming off the bench for the Bulldogs.
