EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last story in a series counting down the top five players in University of Georgia football history. A companion series for Tennessee is planned for May 18-22; an Alabama series was published on May 4-8.
There have been good players, great players, truly great players and Herschel Walker throughout Georgia’s storied football history.
Or, as legendary Bulldogs broadcaster Larry Munson once defined him, “Oh, you Herschel Walker!”
One of my favorite Walker stories occurred 30 years after he burst onto the scene as a Georgia freshman in 1980 and promptly led Vince Dooley’s Bulldogs to their lone Associated Press national championship. The Bulldogs had been 5-6 the season before Walker’s arrival, losing at home to Wake Forest and Virginia, and Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was producing the same dizzying turnaround for the Tigers on their way to the 2010 national title.
I asked Dooley in December 2010 who he thought had the more impactful year on his program, Walker or Newton?