Throwback Dawg Day: Was It The Best Win Ever?
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
Let’s be honest. Memory lane has been fun this week.
When thinking about Oklahoma paying a visit to Athens on Saturday, the instant flashback is to Jan. 1 2018 in that instant classic in the Rose Bowl.
Georgia has had so many wins of of jubilation over the years, and to Bulldogs fans, there is always a fun back-and-forth over the biggest win ever.
Wins like Belue to Scott, 1982 in Auburn or Kevin Butler’s kick to beat Clemson rank high, as do the 1997 drought-breaking win against Florida or the Hobnail Boot. In current times, the midnight win over Ohio State and back-to-back titles rank, rightly, very high.
But which one was the best ever? A case can be made that it was none of those. Instead, an argument is that the greatest Georgia win of all-time was the Rose Bowl.
Yes, the 2021 season ended a drought, all ending on that cold night in Indy with the win against Alabama. But the Georgia program that ascended to that moment does not happen with the win in the Rose Bowl. It served a notice that Georgia football had finally arrived, and that regardless of what would happen going forward, this team was a national title contender and it would no longer be a surprise.
Even before kickoff, you had the sense that just being in the moment was special. As ESPN’s Ryan McGee has noted, two things were made for HDTV: Augusta National and the Rose Bowl. I still remember that shot of Georgia’s players, led by Kirby Smart, waiting to go on the field and that iconic Rose Bowl Game banner behind them and thinking, ‘win or lose, this moment is huge for this program.’
But Georgia had been on this stage before, big games, big moments, only to have flukes of bad luck or other things happen. That’s why this game was different. Georgia didn’t just win – it made a furious comeback against one of the game’s best individual players. These were moments as Georgia fans you got used to going the opposite way. For once, with all eyes watching, the Bulldogs met the moment when it mattered most, and it perhaps more than any other win changed how this program was viewed.
Yes, the loss a week later stung, but with how Georgia played…and won in Pasadena, it helped with the belief that win or lose, this program was elite.
If there is any regret from this game, it’s that there was not more time to soak in the win. Of all moments of time, the few hours after this game was one that, as Georgia fans, you could have bottled up that emotion and let it back out to relive again.
Go Dawgs!
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos