Georgia football has a chance of ending 2021 with a bang as they take on Michigan football in the 2021 Orange Bowl. This game also serves as a College Football Playoff semifinal, with the winner advancing to the National Championship in Indianapolis.
Georgia comes into this game with a 12-1 record and looking to overcome a humiliating loss in the SEC Championship game against Alabama.
They return to the CFP after their last appearance ended in a Tua Tagovailoa touchdown pass back in 2018. The Wolverines are making their first-ever CFP appearance after winning the Big 10 title for the first time since 2004.
The Bulldogs and Wolverines have not played each other since 1965. They have played twice, both times in Ann Arbor, and they have one win each.
Georgia football will get to play in one of college football’s most iconic bowl games on New Year’s Eve, and the stakes could not be higher.
If you like blue-blood college football teams, this is the game for you. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history, and Georgia will be in the top 10 in that category by next season. Both are also near the top 10 in bowl game appearances.
This meeting will be each team’s fourth-ever appearance in the Orange Bowl, which was first played on January 1, 1935. Since then, it has been held annually, serving as one of college football’s premier bowl games.
Let’s turn back the clock and re-visit Georgia’s three previous trips to the Orange Bowl as we get set for the showdown next Friday night.
January 1, 1942: Georgia 40, TCU 26
Not only was this Georgia football’s first-ever Orange Bowl trip, but it was also the first bowl game in Bulldog history.
The 1941 season turned out to be successful for the Dawgs. Led by third-year head coach Wally Butts, the team came into the Orange Bowl with a record of 8-1-1. They defeated rivals Florida, Georgia Tech, and Auburn with relative ease, but their lone loss came against Alabama— big surprise right?
This season also saw the Dawgs travel to Columbus, GA, Macon, Birmingham, and New York City.
The star of this team was future Heisman Trophy-winning halfback, Frank Sinkwich. Sinkwich was a swiss army knife for the Bulldogs. He rushed for 1,103 yards, an SEC record at the time, and passed for 713 yards, giving him 1,816 all-purpose yards on offense that season.
The biggest game in his career would come in the Orange Bowl against TCU. Sinkwich accounted for 355 of Georgia’s 499 total yards of offense. He had three touchdown passes and one rushing touchdown. The Dawgs led 40-14 in the fourth quarter before TCU scored a few times towards the end of the game, giving Georgia a 40-26 victory over the Horned Frogs.
Sinkwich played this game with a broken jaw. He wore a large protector on his helmet to protect it, which had been wired shut. You could say this was a “jaw-dropping” performance from Sinkwich.
This Orange Bowl victory gave Georgia momentum heading into next season. The ’42 Dawgs went 11-1, won the SEC, defeated UCLA in the Rose Bowl, and were named National Champions by many in the media.
January 1, 1949: Texas 41, Georgia 28
The lone Bulldog loss in the Orange Bowl was not a good one. Much like the Georgia-Texas Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in 2019, it looked as if Georgia would have no problems with the Longhorns.
Texas came into Miami with a 6-3-1 record. They were the runner-up in the now-defunct Southwest Conference behind the Southern Methodist Mustangs. SMU was led that season by the 1949 Heisman Trophy winner Doak Walker, who now has an award named after him.
Georgia entered with a 9-1 record, winning their third SEC Championship of the 1940s. Their only loss was to North Carolina, a team that also defeated Texas in the regular season.
Coach Butts was in his 10th season with the Bulldogs and had already cemented himself as one of the greatest coaches in program history. That year, Georgia defeated LSU, Miami, and Alabama on the road. They outscored LSU and ‘Bama 57-0 in those games.
Lady luck was not on the side of the Dawgs in the ’49 Orange Bowl. Texas rushed for 332 yards and five rushing touchdowns on the day. They also forced three Georgia turnovers which were two interceptions and one fumble in a 41-28 win for Texas.
One of the leading Texas rushers in this game was Tom Landry, who would later become the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Landry won two Super Bowls as the Cowboys’ head coach and is ranked No. 4 in all-time wins by an NFL head coach with 250.
A notable Dawg on this team was quarterback John Rauch. Rauch would be the No. 2 overall pick by the Detroit Lions in the 1949 NFL Draft. After his brief playing career, he would coach in both the AFL and NFL.
January 1, 1960: Georgia 14, Missouri 0
Georgia had one of the all-time great defenses in 2021. They had another good one in 1959.
The Bulldog defense in the 1959 season gave up an average of 9.9 points per game, much like this past year’s elite defense. Combined with the play of Georgia’s plucky quarterback Fran Tarkenton, this ’59 Bulldog team had an excellent season.
Georgia reeled off seven straight wins after an early loss to South Carolina in Columbia. This win streak helped the Dawgs claim the 1959 SEC Championship for the first time in a decade, giving Coach Butts his fourth SEC title.
This season was an outlier in a pretty rough decade for the Dawgs. Before 1959, they had a stretch of four straight losing seasons. In today’s “win now” college football world, fans would have been calling for Coach Butts’ head.
The defense that had been so dominant all year proved to be the X-factor against Mizzou. In the first-ever nationally televised Georgia football game, the Dawg defense shut out the Tigers en route to a 14-0 win.
Fran Tarkenton provided all of Georgia’s offenses on the day. He completed 9-of-16 passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns. The Dawgs finished the season ranked No. 5 in the final AP poll and a 10-1 overall record.
Following his time at Georgia, Tarkenton would go on to have an 18-year career in the NFL, playing for both the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants. He was a nine-time Pro Bowler, the 1975 NFL MVP, and he helped lead the Vikings to three Super Bowl appearances in the 1970s. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986.
Georgia football has had a wild ride in the Orange Bowl and the fourth appearance should be memorable.