With the Bulldogs having an open date this Saturday, or a bye week, we take a look at Georgia’s records coming off a bye under the program’s last five head coaches beginning in 1964.
In trying to measure results coming off an open date, comparing the head coaches’ straight-up records is hardly fair. For instance, Vince Dooley annually faced some rather easy Georgia Tech teams off a bye, whereas Ray Goff routinely had to deal with some rather difficult Florida and Auburn squads. Perhaps a better comparison—what I consider somewhat of an “equalizer” when facing dissimilar levels of competition—would be the coaches' off-bye records against the spread, which, below, follow each coach's straight-up mark after an open date:
Some of the head coaches’ most notable off-bye outcomes:
Vince Dooley’s greatest win off a bye likely came in 1984 when, after opening the season with only a seven-point victory over Southern Mississippi, the Bulldogs had a bye week before facing Clemson. The Tigers, which had outscored their first two opponents of the year by a combined 95 to 7, entered the contest at Sanford Stadium ranked No. 2 in the country. Nevertheless, Dooley’s Dogs would pull a historic upset, 26-23.
Another noteworthy game off a bye week during the Dooley era came three years before in 1981 when, originally, Georgia was scheduled to play at Georgia Tech on November 28 following a November 14 date against Auburn. At the last moment, ABC-TV hoped to televise the Tech game, but Alabama-Auburn was already scheduled to be broadcast by the network on November 28. With both schools consenting because of the major television dollars the game would command, Georgia-Georgia Tech was moved back an additional week to December 5. Thus, for the only time in the modern era of Bulldogs football, Georgia had expected back-to-back bye weeks, or three weeks between regular-season games.
In 1994, after getting whipped by Florida in Gainesville by 38 points, Ray Goff’s Dogs had a much-needed week off before traveling to 3rd-ranked and unscathed Auburn—a team perhaps looking a week ahead to its season finale against undefeated Alabama. The 12½-point underdog Bulldogs would not defeat the Tigers, but tie them, 23-23, snapping Auburn’s 20-game winning streak.
Two years later on The Plains, what might have been a tie just the year before prior to overtime being implemented resulted in four overtime periods for the Georgia-Auburn game of ’96. In Jim Donnan’s first season, the Bulldogs had started off the campaign with a lowly 3-5 record including a 40-point loss to Florida two weeks before. Still, as overwhelming underdogs to the 20th-ranked Tigers, the Bulldogs completed a miracle touchdown pass to send the game into overtime at 28-all—and eventually won in a marathon, 56-49.
Mark Richt was once rather successful when it came to his teams coming off open dates, not covering just two of nine off-bye games from 2002 through 2007. This included arguably his two greatest wins during his first seven seasons at Georgia: a 45-16 win over LSU in 2004, and a 42-30 victory over Florida in 2007. However, following the 2007 season, although the Bulldogs had a 6-5 record straight up off byes from 2008 through 2015, they were an unfathomable 1-10 against the spread in those games.
Finally, Kirby Smart’s initial off-bye game as head coach was a loss to Florida in 2016—a third consecutive setback to the Gators with an average margin of defeat of nearly three touchdowns. However, after the Bulldogs had not covered 11 of their previous 12 off-bye games, Smart and company easily did so a year ago, blowing out Florida 42-7 following their open date of last season.
