Georgia football: 30 greatest players of the Mark Richt era

• SEC career passing yards leader
• SEC career passing touchdowns leader
• Second-Team All-SEC (2011)

Some might argue that David Greene and Aaron Murray could switch spots at No. 2 and No. 3. Frankly, they wouldn’t be wrong, as Greene was one of the winningest quarterbacks in college football history. However, Murray edges out Greene simply because he is the most prolific passer in SEC history.

Murray committed to Georgia out of Plant High School in Tampa, Florida in the 2009 high school graduating class. His high school teammate was former Georgia great tight end Orson Charles. He also joined the Georgia program as one of two top-10 quarterbacks in the class along with Zach Mettenberger of nearby Watkinsville.

Murray would be redshirted in 2009, but would emerge as the starting quarterback in Week 1 of 2010 after Mettenberger’s departure from the program. Though Georgia went 6-7 in his first year as a starter, Murray still completed over 60 percent of his passes for over 3,000 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Murray built on that redshirt freshman season with three more seasons of over 3,000 yards passing. In his final three seasons in Athens, Murray had at least 25 touchdown passes. Georgia won the SEC East in back-to-back seasons in 2011 and 2012, but could never quite win the big one in Atlanta.

But it was with Murray at quarterback that Richt came the closest to winning a national title at Georgia. The 2012 SEC Championship Game saw wide receiver Chris Conley catch a tipped pass from Murray as time expired in the Alabama red zone down less than a touchdown. Talk about soul-crushing heartbreak.

Frankly, Murray won plenty of other big games for Georgia to almost make up for that brutal loss. He played phenomenal against Florida, split his four games against Auburn and handled Georgia Tech. However, his nemesis would be South Carolina, who he would not beat until his redshirt senior season in 2013.

Sadly, Murray had his final season with Georgia cut short due to a torn ACL at home to Kentucky in 2013. He would finish as the SEC all-time leader in passing yards with 13,166 and passing touchdowns with 121.

Due to his smaller stature, Murray would only be selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round in the 2014 NFL Draft, despite being one of the best passers in SEC history. After four years in the NFL, Murray is looking to continue his football career as a member of the upstart Alliance of American Football on Atlanta’s franchise coached by Brad Childress.