Georgia football: The 5 most epic neutral-site victories since 2000

3. 2016 Georgia football win over North Carolina

When Georgia football hired head coach Kirby Smart in December of 2015, the program’s expectations skyrocketed. Some may say they didn’t, but to fire a guy like Mark Richt, who consistently won 10-plus games each year, the Dawgs better have someone who can get over the hump.

Georgia didn’t give him a cupcake game to start his career, but instead a neutral-site game against North Carolina. Smart and his Bulldogs won 33-24, thus began the new era of Georgia football.

It was also the first game where Jacob Eason took over the offense. Grayson Lambert started, but Smart quickly turned to Eason, resulting in a big win.

See Dawg fans — if he has to, Smart will make that quarterback switch mid-game.

He connected with Isaiah McKenzie for a 17 yarder in the third quarter for his only touchdown pass of the game. That score put the Dawgs within three points of the Tarheels and sparked an epic comeback. At this point in the game, Dawg fans felt like another disappointing loss was about to happen, but nope, not on this day.

However, it wasn’t Eason that won this ballgame, but Nick Chubb who made his return after that nasty knee injury. He rushed 32 times for 222 yards and two touchdowns. He started the game with a score, and with 3:34 left in the game, he toted the rock 55-yards for a touchdown that would give Georgia the win.

To make a comeback like this gave fans hope that Smart was the right hire and good things were coming for Georgia. For now, it sits at No. 3 because this was a massive win for the Dawgs at the time. New head coach and regime — a loss could have set the tone in a different direction, but instead, it was the first big win of many.

This game ranks higher than the 2017 SEC Championship Game because this was a must-win situation for Smart. Sure, Georgia finished 8-5 that year, but getting a win in Week 1 was massive.