Who is on the Mount Rushmores of Georgia football
Quarterbacks
John Rauch
Much like Kevin McLee gets a spot on Georgia’s Mount Rushmore of Tailbacks for being the first 1,000-yard rusher, John Rauch gets his face on the quarterback version for being the first great passing quarterback.
Before Rauch came to Georgia, the Bulldogs ran the single-wing under Wally Butts and in the 1930’s Georgia ran the Notre Dame Box. Both offenses had the quarterback as the primary blocking back playing right behind the line of scrimmage.
As teams transitioned towards the T-formation, the quarterback stayed in place, but began taking the snap under-center and became the distributor. Rauch was the first Bulldog to fill that role and he did so at a high level.
He was one of the best passers in the country during his four years as starting quarterback and he helped lead Georgia to two SEC Titles and a share of the crown in 1946.
Eric Zeier
Rauch was Georgia’s first passing quarterback, but Zeier was the Bulldog’s first modern quarterback. Defenses were becoming bigger and faster making the old three yards and a cloud of dust offense obsolete. Passing offenses became all the rage by the early 1990’s and Georgia needed a passer to help keep up with the times.
All Zeier did in his four years as starting quarterback was break just about every meaningful school and SEC passing record. By his senior year, Georgia was at the forefront of the evolution of offense in college football.
David Greene
Many of those records broke by Zeier in the early 1990’s, Greene made his own a decade later. But David Greene added efficiency to the stats. His interception records were just spectacular. he owns the school record with 214 consecutive attempts without an interception. He’s also second place on that lost with another streak of 176 passes.
His 2.22 interception percentage in a career is also the lowest in school history and 1.33 interception percentage in 2004 is second to only Grayson Lambert’s 2015 season.
Aaron Murray
There’s just something about Aaron Murray. He wasn’t as efficient as Greene, and he didn’t have as many unbelievable statistical games as Zeier. But Murray was the total package.
He wasn’t just a great passer with over 13,000 career passing yards with 121 touchdowns (almost twice as many as Zeier). He was also one of the toughest players on the team. As a small quarterback, he took a lot of shots, but they never slowed him down.
In fact, two of his most memorable plays were on his legs. His long run against Tennessee helped the Bulldogs win that game and his short but risky touchdown run to take the lead against Auburn should have been the game-winner.