Georgia football: 30 greatest players of the Mark Richt era

• 2x SEC Champion (2002, 2005)
• Consensus All-American (2005)
• First-Team All-SEC (2005)

Greg Blue cracks the top-10 of greatest Georgia players to have played under former head coach Mark Richt. Blue was one of the first players to commit to Georgia after Richt came aboard from the Florida State Seminoles in 2001. His hard-hitting prowess made Blue one of the best safeties in Georgia history.

Blue played his high school ball in College Park, Georgia. After having been redshirted as a true freshman in 2001, Blue would be part of Richt’s first SEC Championship team in 2002, albeit in a reserve role.

Admittedly it took a while, but Blue made a big name for himself as an upperclassmen at Georgia. He earned a starting job as a junior in 2004 at rover. Blue would finish second on the team in 2004 in tackles with 80 total tackles. His punishing hits in the middle of the Georgia defense forced three fumbles that fall.

After a great junior year as a starting defensive back for the Dawgs, Blue’s redshirt senior campaign in 2005 made him an Athens gridiron legend. Blue would be named First-Team All-SEC and a consensus All-American in the UGA secondary. Let’s not forget that Georgia would win the SEC Championship for the second time in four years that season.

So how good was Blue in 2005? He had a career-high 96 total tackles, 70 solo and 26 assists. Blue had 3.5 quarterback sacks and two interceptions playing in the Georgia secondary. Richt could trust Blue to make plays out on an island thanks to his great solo-tackling ability at rover. Blue was one of those players who grew with Richt in those early years in Athens.

While his hard-hitting abilities were his calling card in college, perhaps his game didn’t translate as well to the professional level? Blue would only be a fifth-round pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2006 NFL Draft. After one full season with the team, Blue would be released and spent part of 2008 with the Detroit Lions.

A few years later, Blue would try his luck in the CFL. While the Toronto Argonauts gave him looks twice in 2010 and 2011, he never was more that a preseason/practice squad player. He professional football career ended after the 2011 campaign.

Overall, Blue being seen as a consensus All-American as a redshirt senior and being a two-time SEC Champion is good enough to have him come in here at No. 10. Were there more talented defensive backs to play at Georgia? Yes, but few, if any, hit as hard as did Blue with the Dawgs from 2002 to the 2005.