Georgia football: History of the Dawgs and College GameDay

Georgia football and ESPN College GameDay have a love/hate relationship with each other, and its next date is on Saturday. Can history help ease Dawg fans nerves? Maybe.

Georgia football hasn’t always had the best luck when it comes to being ESPN’s College GameDay city of the week as it goes in the Dawgs favor or it’s a massive fail for the Dawgs.

The last time Georgia hosted College GameDay in Athens was on Sept. 28, 2013, almost six years to the date. Now that’s eery. Georgia took LSU and defeated the Bayou Tigers 44-41, and it was one of the best games ever seen in Athens.

The Dawgs were a part of GameDay last year for the Georgia/Florida game in Jacksonville and the SEC Championship Game against Alabama.

In 2017, GameDay found Georgia at the Rose Bowl for that epic double overtime, 54-48 win over Oklahoma, and that large orange bus followed the Dawgs home to Atlanta for the College Football Playoff National Championship game.

Georgia didn’t see Lee Corso and the gang before that since the LSU showdown in Athens.

Here are the games Georgia was a part of ESPN’s College GameDay and how the Dawgs got to their current 6-15 record. The wins are bold. Thanks to NCAA for the information.

— 1995: Knoxville, TN, No. 8 Tennessee over Georgia 30-27, (0-1)

— 1998: Athens, GA, No. 5 Tennessee over No.7 Georgia  22-3, (0-2)

— 1999: Jacksonville, Fla., No. 5 Florida over No. 10 Georgia 30-14 (0-3)

— 2002: Tuscaloosa, Al., No. 6 Georgia over No. 22 Alabama 27-25 (1-3)

— 2002: Jacksonville, Fla., No. 22 Florida over No. 5 Georgia 20-13 (1-4)

— 2003: Baton Rouge, LA., No. 11 LSU over No. 7 Georgia 17-10 (1-5)

—  2003: SEC Championship Game, No. 3 LSU over No. 5 Georgia 34-13 (1-6)

— 2004: Columbia, S.C., No. 4 Georgia over South Carolina 20-16 (2-6)

— 2004: Auburn, Al., No. 3 Auburn over No. 5 Georgia 24-6 (2-7)

— 2005: Jacksonville, Ga., No. 16 Florida over No. 4 Georgia 14-10 (2-8)

— 2007: Tuscaloosa, Al., No. 22 Georgia over No. 16 Alabama 26-23 OT (3-8)

— 2008: Athens, Ga., No. 8 Alabama over No. 3 Georgia 41-30 (3-9)

— 2011: SEC Championship Game: No. 1 LSU over No. 12 Georgia 42-10 (3-10)

— 2012: Columbia, S.C., No. 6 South Carolina over No. 5 Georgia 35-7 (3-11)

— 2012: SEC Championship Game No.2 Alabama over No. 3 Georgia 32-28 (3-12)

— 2013: Clemson, S.C., No. 8 Clemson over No.5 Georgia 38-35 (3-13)

— 2013: Athens, Ga., No. 9 Georgia over No. 6 LSU 44-41 (4-13)

— 2017:  Rose Bowl, No. 3 Georgia over No. 2 Oklahoma 54-48 2OT (5-13)

— 2017: CFP National Championship: No. 4 Alabama over No. 3 Georgia 26-23 OT (5-14)

— 2018: Jacksonville, Fla., No. 7 Georgia over. No. 9 Florida 36-17 (6-14)

— 2018: SEC Championship Game, No. 1 Alabama over No. 4 Georgia 35-28 (6-15)

So at home, Georgia is 1-2 when hosting ESPN GameDay. In all the Dawgs have been a part of 21 GameDays since 1995.

While looking at these stats seem to be pretty bad, the bright side of it, since 2013, the Dawgs have gone 3-2 and 2-2 under Kirby Smart. So if you want to look at the glass half-full, Saturday’s matchup is for Smart and his era to get a winning record when GameDay comes to town.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that these numbers can make a fan base pretty nervous. This team isn’t your Mark Richt team anymore that can’t find ways to win bigger games. Smart’s got this group ready, and it might get ugly on Saturday to prove a point.

Irish have never beaten the Dawgs

Georgia’s got a great opportunity to do just that. The Dawgs take on Notre Dame and currently have a 2-0 record on the Irish. Of all the SEC teams that Notre Dame’s faced over the years, Georgia is the only one the Irish have yet to beat.

Notre Dame’s even beaten Alabama and holds a 5-2 record over the Tide, granted, it’s not been recently that the Irish beat the Tide, but it still counts.

Georgia initially defeated the Irish in the 1980 Sugar Bowl 17-10 to make the Dawgs the national champions. Then the two faced off again in 2017 when Jake Fromm made his starting debut, and the Dawgs won 20-19.

While the last two games have been close, 2019’s matchup will likely not be.

These two teams are both highly talented, but the Dawgs have the upper hand.

Can Notre Dame finally get a win over this SEC school? Probably not as the Dawgs are at home, in Sanford Stadium where it will be the biggest crowd in the stadium’s history.

With the extra bleacher seats in the west end zone, it’ll be something we as Georgia fans have never seen before, which will make us that much rowdier.

Georgia needs its crowd to be the 12th man and get loud on Saturday. The Dawgs need to stay perfect on the season and the Irish.

With GameDay in Athens, Georgia’s got a chance to prove itself. The Dawgs don’t have an excellent record when GameDay’s around, and it’s time to put that to bed along with putting Notre Dame out of its misery and help the Irish realize it’s okay to be 0-3 against the Dawgs, some things are just historic and meant to be like that.