Top 5 Georgia football teams not coached by Mark Richt, Vince Dooley or Wally Butts

The history of Georgia football is normally summed up through the Wally Butts, Vince Dooley and Mark Richt era’s. But what about the other era’s and coaches?

With over 700 wins, 12 SEC Championships and a pair of consensus National Titles, Georgia football is rich in history. But most of that history comes from just three coaches. Wally Butts who coached Georgia from 1939-1960, Vince Dooley from 1964-1988 and Mark Richt from 2001-2015.

But what about those other coaches and teams? Today we’re going count down the five best teams from the seldom mentioned 60 plus years of the history of Georgia football.

5. 1997, 10-2

Jim Donnan’s second year was also his best year. In 1996, Georgia went 5-6 with losses to Southern Mississippi, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee and a blowout loss to Florida. That was the last time Georgia failed to make a bowl game.

In 1997, lead by seniors Mike Bobo and Hines Ward, Georgia doubled their win total. Georgia’s only losses that year came to the SEC East champs Tennessee and the SEC West champs Auburn. The Bulldogs managed to defeat the defending National Champion Florida Gators.

Unfortunately it was all down hill after that for Donnan. Georgia finished 9-3 in 1998, and 8-4 in 1999 and 2000. But 1997 began Georgia’s 24-year bowl streak.

4. 1911, 7-1-1

This team was mentioned briefly in a Dawg of the Week article a few weeks ago about W.A. Cunningham. But there is not too much information on this team besides the record and schedule.

But the 1911 team is one of the Bulldogs most significant. Georgia football was a largely irrelevant program in the 1890’s and 1900’s with Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Auburn being the top programs in the southeast.

Cunningham began to change that in 1910 when the bulldogs went 6-2-1, but his 1911 team was much better finishing 7-1-1.

The only loss came to Vanderbilt 17-10, who won their second straight Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship in a row. The tie was a 0-0 finish against Auburn which set Georgia back to third place in the SIAA (which had 18 teams in 1911).

Georgia averaged 16.3 points on offense that year, but they only allowed an average of 3.1. Their defense had five shoutouts and besides giving up 17 against Vanderbilt, they never allowed a team to score more than five points.

The 1911 Bulldogs might not have won a championship but they helped set a winning tradition that persisted throughout the 1910’s, culminated in the 1920 season (we’ll get to that one) and the 1927 season (we’ll also get to that one).

3. 1992, 10-2

Just like 1997 was Jim Donna’s best season at Georgia, 1992 was Ray Goff’s. The Bulldogs only losses that year came by a combined five points. They lost early in the year to Tennessee 34-31 and later to eventual SEC East champs Florida 26-24.

Besides that Georgia blew past everyone behind the arm of Eric Zeier and the legs of Garrison Hearst, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting and won the Doak Walker Award.

The Bulldogs blew out South Carolina (28-6), Cal. State Fullerton (56-0), Mississippi State (37-11), Arkansas (27-3), Georgia Southern (34-7) and Kentucky (40-7). They also defeated Auburn on a last minutes goal line stand and Georgia tech who won the National title just two years earlier.

Georgia went on to play Kirk Herbstreit and the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Citrus Bowl where the Bulldogs won 21-14.

2. 1920, 8-0-1

H.J. Stegman’s group of Bulldogs were the first to earn a championship when in 1920 they went 8-0-1 and were named champions of the SIAA in it’s last year before the Southern Conference was formed.

Georgia shared the 1920 SIAA Championship with Georgia tech and Tulane. But Georgia’s Championship seems more legitimate since all of their eight wins came against other SIAA teams and they were the only undefeated team in the conference.

Georgia Tech finished 8-1, but they were only 5-0 against SIAA teams. Tulane finished 6-2-1 and 4-0 in SIAA play.

Georgia was just more dominant against the SIAA. They handed Alabama and Furman their only losses of 1920. Alabama finished 10-1 and Furman was 9-1. They were also the only SIAA team to beat South Carolina. They outscored teams by the average score of 28-2 and defensively they had seven shutouts.

The only blemish on their schedule was a 0-0 tie to Virginia who was a member of the Southern Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association, for those who were curious of their conference affiliation.

1. 1927, 9-1

The first Georgia football team to earn a national championship should obviously be number one on this countdown. George Woodruff’s bulldogs began the season on a 9-game winning streak and their last win came against Alabama who won National Championships in 1925 and 1926.

Georgia also beat Yale 14-10 in New haven, Connecticut and they outscored opponents by an average score of 25-4 with five shutout victories.

Their only loss came to Georgia Tech in Atlanta to end the season. The story goes that Georgia tech students drenched the field the night before to slow down Georgia’s running backs and gain an unfair advantage. But who knows whether that’s true or not?

The loss to Tech was still one of the biggest losses in Georgia’s history though. For one, it meant no trip to the Rose Bowl. And two, it led to the construction of Sanford Stadium. Georgia Tech refused to travel to Athens and so Georgia and Tech did not play between 1916 and 1925. And all but three meetings from 1893-to-1928 were played in Atlanta.

However, the loss to Tech was not devastating enough for the Poling and Boand polls who both had Georgia at no. 1 at the end of the season.