Now that the dust is beginning to settle (or will it ever begin to settle?) on Georgia capturing the 2021 national championship, the question arises: where does the latest group of gridiron Bulldogs rank in the history of the sport at UGA?
To measure where the 2021 Dawgs stack up in the program’s 130-year history, I’ve ranked my opinion of the top 10 teams (plus several honorable mentions) in the annals of Georgia football based on a variety of factors, including overall record against strength of schedule, championship(s) won, and average scoring margin. In descending order:
10. 1910 (6-2-1): So, before you question how on earth a team from more than 110 years ago, which won only six of its nine games, can rank among Georgia football’s elite, consider the following: Prior to the 1910 campaign, the Red and Black had achieved only seven winning seasons in the program’s first 18 years of football, and had an overall losing winning percentage of .477. Guided by newcomer halfback Bob McWhorter, Georgia scored 237 points in its first four games (while allowing only five), or 10 points more than the team had scored in its previous 28 games combined dating back to 1906. The 1910 season marked the first time Georgia football distinguished itself in the South, and the first year of an eventual eight-season head coaching tenure for Alex Cunningham after the Red and Black featured 14 head coaches in its first 18 seasons. Against a schedule recognized in the preseason as “the hardest in [Georgia’s] history,” the team’s average scoring differential of 25.4 points currently ranks fourth at the school.
9. 1971 (11-1): I consider the Bulldogs from a half-century ago probably the program’s most underappreciated team of all time. Not winning the SEC title and having to settle for a Gator Bowl berth really took the shine off what should be considered one of Georgia’s top teams in the modern era (since World War II). Led by sophomore quarterback Andy Johnson, the Bulldog offense averaged more than 32 points per regular-season game, whereas the defense either pitched a shutout or yielded merely a touchdown to eight straight foes from game two through game nine. Georgia began its season a perfect 9-0 (8-1 against the spread), yet was ranked only No. 7 in the nation, before losing to Auburn, then getting by Georgia Tech, followed by a win over North Carolina in the postseason.
8. 2017 (13-2): In Kirby Smart’s second year as head coach, Georgia got off to a 9-0 start and was ranked No. 1 in the country before being routed at Auburn. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs got their revenge three weeks later, defeating the Tigers by three touchdowns in the SEC title game. Led by linebacker Roquan Smith on defense and a Nick Chubb-Sony Michel one-two punch in the Bulldog backfield, Georgia defeated 11 of its opponents by at least two touchdowns. Resulting in the program’s first appearance in the College Football Playoff, the highlight of the campaign was a win over Oklahoma in the team’s first Rose Bowl appearance in 75 years, before the Bulldogs dropped a game they should have won against Alabama for the national championship.
7. 1981 (10-2): I truly believe Georgia’s squad from 40 years ago, despite having two setbacks, was more talented than its perfect, national championship predecessor the season before. With all but one of the Bulldogs’ victories coming by double digits, its 20.8 scoring differential was Georgia’s highest since 1946 until this past season. Guided by sophomore tailback Herschel Walker, the Bulldog offense ranked No. 4 in the country in total yards and No. 7 in scoring, whereas the defense was No. 2 in rushing and No. 3 in scoring. Despite a regular-season loss to Clemson, which would ultimately capture the national championship, Georgia entered its Sugar Bowl matchup with Pittsburgh with a shot at the ultimate prize.
6. 1927 (9-1): Headlined by a pair of All-American ends, “Chick” Shiver and Tom Nash, Georgia’s “Dream and Wonder Team” and the “Team of Destiny” raced through its first nine games with ease, as just one foe was much of a test (a 14-10 upset win at Yale, which was declared national champions by the College Football Researchers Association). Standing as the only undefeated and untied team in the country, and with a Rose Bowl bid on the line to play for a national championship, Georgia was upset in Atlanta by Georgia Tech, 12-0, in its season finale. Arguably featuring the greatest defense in Bulldog history, the ’27 defenders held their opposition to a paltry 29.2 completion percentage, 3.8 points per game, and four offensive touchdowns the entire season. In retrospect, the team was declared national champions by two NCAA-recognized mathematical rankings, the Boand and Poling systems.
5. 1980 (12-0): Even its acclaimed head coach, Vince Dooley, has admitted his 17th Georgia squad was routinely more lucky than good. With that being said, and considering a number of factors, I ranked the “undisputed” national title team (as Dooley has characterized the 1980 Bulldogs) as low as I did. For one, not one of the Bulldogs’ regular-season opponents finished ranked in the final AP Poll. And, in its bowl game, Georgia was fortunate to face a No. 7-ranked, 9-1-1 Notre Dame team (instead of No. 2 Florida State or No. 3 Pittsburgh) in a contest in which the Fighting Irish easily outgained the Bulldogs, 328 to 127, in the 17-10 decision. Of Georgia’s 12 opponents, only half were defeated by more than a touchdown. And, finally, that season’s final New York Times computer poll—a widely recognized poll at the time which emphasized scoring margin and strength of schedule, and was usually in agreement with the voter-based AP and UPI polls as far as recognizing a national champion—ranked Georgia a lowly No. 7, trailing five teams which finished with 10-2 records.
4. 1920 (8-0-1): Nicknamed “Wildcats” to begin the season, and ultimately winding up as the “Bulldogs,” Herman Stegeman’s Georgia team of more than a century ago remarkably shut out seven of its nine opponents, including a 0-0 tie at Virginia in early November. The Wildcats-turned-Bulldogs handed both Furman and Alabama their only loss of the season, while upsetting an undefeated Auburn squad which had not lost to Georgia in eight years. This team’s scoring margin of 25.9 points per game remains ranked as the second highest in school history. With an 8-0-1 record, the Bulldogs claimed their second S.I.A.A. championship and the program’s first since 1896. With Georgia Tech claiming the championship as well (8-1 record with loss to Pittsburgh and did not face Georgia), Georgia challenged the Yellow Jackets to play them “anywhere and at any time.” Tech dodged the Bulldogs’ request.
3. 1942 (11-1): Besides a 7-6 opening win over Kentucky and a 27-13 upset loss to Auburn, Wally Butts’ Bulldogs pretty much dominated the rest of their 12-game schedule. Highlighted by Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich, Georgia captured the SEC title for the first time, achieved its first 10-win season and top-10 finish, and won the Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs defeated powerhouses Alabama and Georgia Tech—ranked No. 3 and No. 2, respectively—by a combined 55-to-10 score. Featuring the top offense in the nation by averaging 430 yards per game, the Georgia defense yielded less than 190 yards per contest. Although essentially all of the rankings were retroactive and computer-based, and even UGA did not recognized the championship until the 1990s, six NCAA-recognized polls ranked the Bulldogs No. 1, resulting in the first of only three consensus national titles for Georgia to date.
2. 1946 (11-0): The 1946 campaign remains one of only three undefeated and untied seasons in Georgia football history. In a season in which the Bulldogs likely should have been voted No. 1 in the AP Poll (they were No. 3 behind Notre Dame and Army, which tied one another in the regular season), and Charley Trippi should have captured the Heisman Trophy (he finished second behind Army’s Glenn Davis), Georgia’s 11 wins came rather easily as it never trailed in the fourth quarter and outscored its opposition by 25.6 points per game. The Bulldogs’ closest victory was by 10 points—a 20-10 decision over No. 9 North Carolina in the Sugar Bowl. Perhaps one drawback to the perfect season was only four of Georgia’s 11 opponents finished the season with a winning record. Although the Bulldogs were overlooked by nearly all rankings as the top team in college football, the Williamson Poll, a power rating invented by geologist (and Sugar Bowl committee member) Paul Williamson, ranked Georgia No. 1.
1. 2021 (14-1): The most recent Georgia football squad is my opinion of the greatest in school history, edging out the perfect 1946 team. Following a 10-3 close win over No. 3 Clemson in week one, the Bulldogs dominated the rest of their regular-season schedule as few teams have in the annals of college football. Included was a three-game stretch against ranked teams (No. 8 Arkansas-No. 18 Auburn-No. 11 Kentucky) whereby Georgia defeated the trio of foes by a combined 101-to-23 score. After losing to Alabama for the SEC title, the Bulldogs dismantled Michigan in the Orange Bowl, followed by getting revenge on the Crimson Tide in the National Championship Game and finishing as truly the lone “undisputed” national champion in UGA football history. Remarkably, the team ranked first or second in the entire FBS in five major defensive categories. More than that, in this age when there is more parity in college football than yesteryear, particularly before the 1960s, Georgia’s average scoring differential of 28.2 points is a school record by more than two points.
Honorable Mention (in chronological order): 1896 (4-0); 1941 (9-1-1); 1968 (8-1-2); 1976 (10-2); 1992 (10-2); 2002 (13-1); and 2019 (12-2)
