5. Matthew Stafford (2006-08)
Who could go from having such a bad freshman year to being drafted no. 1 overall after his junior year? That’s exactly what Matthew Stafford did from 2006-to-2008, and that 2008 season is why Stafford is ranked fifth on this list.
But as a true freshman in 2006, Stafford looked rough. Joe Tereshinski III was initially the starting quarterback for Georgia that year but he got injured in the second week of the season. That put Stafford in the spotlight against South Carolina and he responded by throwing three interceptions and no touchdowns.
Stafford even lost his starting job to Joe Cox after a bad first three quarters against Colorado, but he out performed Cox a week later against Ole Miss to become the backup for Tereshinski’s return against Tennessee. But Stafford became the permanent starter after Tereshinski got injured against Vanderbilt.
Stafford finished his freshman year with 1,749 yards, seven touchdowns with 13 interceptions.
But he improved a ton in his sophomore year. He turned his touchdown-to-interception ratio around with 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also passed for 2,523.
But as mentioned earlier, Stafford cracks the top-5 because of his junior year. He fell just 66 yards short of Eric Zeier’s record of passing yards in a season with 3,459 yards. He broke the school record for passing touchdowns in a season with 25 and he again limited his interceptions to just 10.
To that point, it was one of the best seasons for a quarterback in Georgia football history, if not the best season. A year like Matthew Stafford’s 2008 is definetely a year that’ll put a quarterback on this list.