Georgia football countdown to kickoff: 97 days to go
The 2018 Georgia football season begins in 97 days.
The countdown to the 2018 Georgia football season is now down to just 97 days. So for the 97 day mark, let’s look back on the 1997 season. To me, it’s a very overlooked season, but it’s an important season.
It was the first season of Georgia’s 13-year streak of winning seasons, and of the ongoing 21-year bowl eligibility streak. The 1997 team also produced a big leap forward from the previous four seasons. From 1993-to-1996, Georgia’s record was 22-22-1. That was the worst four-year stretch in program history since the early 1960’s.
In 1996, Jim Donnan took over as head coach and Georgia’s troubles continued with a 5-6 season that included a 3-5 SEC record. But a team led by seniors Mike Bobo, Hines Ward and Robert Edwards on offense, and Ronald Bailey on defense, produced one of the biggest turnarounds in school history.
That 1997 squad finished 10-2 and 6-2 in the SEC. The Associated Press ranked them no. 10 in the final poll and they defeated Ron Dayne and the Wisconsin Badgers 33-6 in the Outback Bowl.
Bobo passed for 2,751 yards with 19 touchdowns. Edwards ran for 908 yards and caught for another 214 yards with 13 total scores. Ward had 715 receiving yards and 223 rushing yards with six touchdowns. The trio was electric and productive all year aside from terrible game against Tennessee.
But the biggest boost the team received between the 1996 and 1997 seasons was the emergence of a few juniors. Champ Bailey began playing both ways and produced 249 yards of offense along with three interceptions and 250 kick return yards. Future head coach Kirby Smart intercepted six passes that year.
August and September
Georgia began the year with three tune-up games; Arkansas State, South Carolina and Northeast Louisiana. Those three school combined to go 12-22. Georgia whipped the floor with each of them at home.
They started the year by crushing Arkansas State 38-7, smacked around South Carolina to the tune of 31-15, and concluded September with a 42-3 win over Northeast Louisiana.