Weekly Top 10: Best head coaches in Georgia football history

4. George Woodruff

From 1910-22, Cunningham and Stegeman had turned Georgia football into one of the top programs in the south. So in 1923, when former team captain Georgia “Kid” Woodruff became head coach, he had big shoes to fill.

But that didn’t seem to be a problem for Woodruff who at the end of his five years as head coach led Georgia to their first national championship.

In 1923, Woodruff led Georgia to a 5-3-1 record and in 1924 they finished 7-3. After finished 4-5 and 5-4 in 1925 and 1926 respectively, Georgia became a championship program with a 9-1 season in 1927.

Their only blemish that year was a 12-0 loss to Georgia Tech that snapped a nine-game win streak and ruined their shot at a consensus national title. But two national polls (Poling and Boand) recognized Georgia as National Champions.

He retired as head coach after 1927 to focus on his insurance business.

His career record at Georgia was 30-16-1 and he left one of the biggest legacies of anyone in Georgia football history. The basketball arena Georgia played in for many years was named Woodruff Hall in honor of him and his brother, Harry “Big Kid” Woodruff. Georgia’s outdoor practice field is also named in his honor.

Despite only coaching for five seasons, he had a pretty prestigious coaching tree. To run the Notre Dame Box offense at Georgia, he hired Harry Mehre, Frank Thomas and Jim Crowley as assistant coaches.

Mehre went on to become head coach at Georgia (where he came in at no. 8 on this list). Thomas spent 16 seasons as head coach at Alabama and won four SEC Championships and two national championships. Crowley went on to coach at Michigan State, Fordham and North Carolina Pre-Flight where we accumulated a career record of 86-23-11.