Georgia football had one of those magical seasons in 2021 that everyone knew was coming the longer it got into the year.
Each week felt like a monumental victory of the Dawgs overcoming one obstacle after another. The 2021 season will go down in history just like the 1980 one did. Both teams were full of players willing to go the extra mile, come together as one and do something great.
While these two seasons are similar, the magical part about 2021 is what this championship does for the future of this program. There is a buzz surrounding Georgia and while I cannot speak for the 1980 team, that moment on Jan.10 felt like an awakening.
Something inside the historic Athens rose through the years of heartbreak to overcome the one obstacle standing in the way. Georgia finally beat Alabama, but think about what else the Dawgs accomplished in 2021.
Georgia football made countless memories in the championship season, but these are our 21 favorites.
For starters, winning 14 games was a record. Going undefeated in SEC play since the conference divided into divisions was a first. Thirteen of 15 games saw the Dawgs win by two or more touchdowns, and this senior class left as the winningest in program history.
Georgia fans saw freshmen step up and play a significant role — another 1980 similarity. Each week it felt like the Dawgs had one more team to beat before people would take them seriously, and outside of one, Georgia did that.
The 2021 season is remarkable, but it will be different from 1980 because it won’t take the Dawgs another 41 years to win another title. What head coach Kirby Smart and his staff are doing is creating a program that will contend for years to come and possibly become the next great college football dynasty.
As wild as it sounds to speak about something as unique as creating a dynasty, the way that win felt on Jan. 10, something shifted in the energy. Alabama fans see it, too, so they complain about the injuries. Other fans see it and don’t know how to act, so they complain but think about it.
What Smart and his coaches in every game’s facade is historical, and now they’ve won it all. The only thing to do next is to keep it going.
While far more than 21 memorable moments happened in the historic 2021 season, these are our favorites.
We will count it down and finish with our all-time favorite moment, which most of you will likely assume is the Kelee Ringo pick-six, but there was something far better than that moment. So, take a journey down memory lane and remember some of the best moments from the 2021 season.