Georgia football: 3 amazing tone-setting victories from the 2007 season
#1: Georgia football beats Alabama in overtime 26-23 in Tuscaloosa
The one game that genuinely changed Georgia football into what it is today has to be the overtime win in Tuscaloosa, Ala., during the 2007 season when Matthew Stafford and company beat the Tide 26-23.
This game was one of the best in Mark Richt’s tenure at Georgia, and even though it was the last time the Dawgs beat Alabama until this past season’s national title game, it produced so much emotion that it has to be No.1.
Those who play Alabama know how hard it is to beat the Tide in T-Town, regardless of how strong Alabama has been in recent years. In 2007, it was Nick Saban’s second season and one of the last times he suffered more than two losses in a single year.
No one gave the Dawgs a shot to win this game, especially after falling to South Carolina the week before, 16-12. However, Stafford and the rest of the team had other ideas. It did take overtime, but a win is a win.
Alabama came into this game 3-0 after getting a 41-38 win over Arkansas the week before, so they were confident. Georgia gained some much-needed confidence after this victory, so it was huge for the Dawgs.
Alabama holds a commanding lead in the overall series, but this victory gave Georgia three straight wins over the Tide.
The Dawgs won in 2002, 2003 and 2007. After that, though, Saban took over, and the next seven games resulted in losses. That is why this game ranks No.1 on this list because after Richt beat them once, he wouldn’t again.
In future games against the Tide, he tried tactics that don’t work on elite programs like Alabama and it eventually showed that he wasn’t the man that would win a national championship. The following year, Alabama delivered a blow in Athens that would make fans hate the black jerseys and begin to question Richt.
His inability to not beat Alabama more than once and a couple of other reasons are why Georgia would eventually turn to Kirby Smart.
This win gave Georgia fans hope and then took it all away as the Tide flexed and became the ultimate hurdle for the Dawgs — need we remind you of the 2012 SEC Championship? The 2007 victory is still significant because 15 years later, all that pent-up emotion helped make the impossible happen.
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Fifteen years ago, the Dawgs produced three victories that fans still talk about today because they were that epic. Georgia football changed the course of its program with these three wins. Dawg fans realized that their team could win big ones even when things like the South Carolina and Tennesse losses happen in a season.