The 2018 Georgia football season begins in 79 days
Three weeks have passed since the beginning of the countdown to the 2018 Georgia football season. Only 79 days remain until kickoff between the hedges at Sanford Stadium. For 79 days, our countdown is going back to one of the oddest Georgia football seasons of all. 1979.
Yesterday’s topic was the greatest Georgia team. The 1980 Bulldogs who won the SEC and National Championship. But that team succeeded a squad that finished 6-5 the year before. But here’s the strange part. They were one win away from sharing the SEC Championship with Alabama.
The 1979 team is sandwiched between two great teams. And it came at the tail end of strange era for the team. Georgia averaged just 6.7 wins from 1972-to-1974 after barrely missing out on a SEC Championship in 1971. The 1975 team didn’t start the year much better, but they bounced back after a loss to Ole Miss and ended the year 9-3. That loss to the Rebels kept the Dawgs from winning the SEC.
They finally recaptured a conference title in 1976 and were National Championship contenders at the end of the year. The 1977 team had Vince Dooley’s only losing record. But that team developed into a great 1978 squad that finished 9-2-1 and just one point away from winning the SEC Championship. Including 1979, Georgia possibly could have won five SEC titles in the 1970’s.
Just like in the 1977, the 1979 team had to rebuild. Willie McClendon was no longer in school. His career ended with 2,228 career rushing yards and a 1,312-yard season in 1978. Buck Belue gained the starting quarterback job from Jeff Pyburn. While Lindsay Scott and Amp Arnold were becoming more of a factor on offense.
Change wasn’t comfortable for the Dawgs early on in 1979. They entered the year ranked no. 12 but they quickly fell out of the top-25 after three-straight losses to begin the season. They lost to Wake Forest in the season opener 22-21. Then to Clemson 12-7, and South Carolina 27-20.
The Dawgs were 0-3, but still 0-0 in the SEC. A National Championship was out of the question, but they could still salvage the year and compete for a SEC crown. And that’s exactly what they did.
They went undefeated in October, scoring SEC wins over Ole Miss (24-21), no. 13 LSU (21-14), Vanderbilt (31-10) and Kentucky (20-6). The winning streak ended on November 3, but the opponent was Virginia. The Dawgs were 4-4, but they had a 4-0 SEC record. The Dawgs took care of Florida the following week to improve to 5-0 in SEC play.
But the SEC title hopes ended once again thanks to Auburn, who defeated Georgia 33-13 in the Dawgs’ SEC finale. The Dawgs were now 5-5 overall. Georgia went from possible champions to just trying to end the year over .500. Georgia just had one losing season in 1977, we didn’t need another.
Fortunetely, the last opponent was Georgia Tech. We all know the Dawgs don’t lost to Tech. Georgia picked up a 16-3 victory to end the year 6-5. There weren’t enough bowls back then for Georgia to play in the winter.
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But the Dawgs not only weathered the storm of a rebuilding year, they actually salvaged it into a great October and November. Not only that, by placing more offensive responsibilities on the shoulders of Belue, Scott and Arnold, the offense was prepared to take a big leap in 1980. Herschel Walker was a large piece of that offense, but he wasn’t surrounded by scrubs.