The Herschel Walker era is no longer viewed as the zenith in Georgia football history.
Georgia posted a 43-4-1 record during the 1980-83 seasons, with Walker powering the Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship and winning the 1982 Heisman Trophy. The All-America running back left after his junior year for the United States Football League, but a defense spearheaded by Freddie Gilbert and Terry Hoage paced the 1983 Bulldogs to a 10-1-1 record and a Cotton Bowl win over previously undefeated Texas.
Those were the glory days for countless folks who wear the red and black, until these days came along.
Georgia will open its 2024 season against Clemson a week from this Saturday in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs will do so having compiled a scorching 42-2 record the past three seasons. They did not win another national championship after 1980 until the 2021 season, but they quickly added another crown in 2022.
Last season’s Bulldogs made a run at the sport’s first three-peat since the inception of the Associated Press poll in 1936, but they stumbled 27-24 against Alabama in the Southeastern Conference title game. Georgia bounced back from that heartbreak with a 63-3 thrashing of Florida State in the Orange Bowl, and the Bulldogs enter this season with the goal of being the first champion of a 12-team College Football Playoff.
The Bulldogs have an incredibly demanding schedule, facing Clemson, Kentucky, Alabama, Texas, Florida and Ole Miss away from home, but they are enjoying their view from the top and are not planning on relinquishing it.
“I think it’s just realizing complacency gets you passed up,” junior All-America safety Malaki Starks said last month at SEC media days. “If you’re flatlining, people who are consistently growing are going to pass you at some point, and the goal is not to get passed. The goal is to just keep growing.”
Here are some staggering numbers the Bulldogs have attained as they seek a third national title in four seasons.
0: Punt returns allowed last season by Georgia, the only Football Bowl Subdivision program to accomplish that feat.
1: Where the Bulldogs begin this season in the AP Top 25, the 35th time in the past 41 polls they have been ranked at the top.
3: Consecutive seasons in which Georgia has won 13 or more games, a program first.
6.6: Points that Georgia’s defense allowed in the second halves of games last season. That defense returns seven of 11 starters, too.
7.26: Yards per play that Georgia averaged on offense in 2023, setting a single-season program mark.
22: Number of different Bulldogs who had receptions last year.
27: Consecutive SEC regular-season victories attained by Georgia since losing to Florida in 2020.
31: The largest margin of defeat the Bulldogs have suffered under Smart, with that being the 45-14 setback at Ole Miss in his debut season of 2016. Georgia visits Oxford for the first time since that ambush — the Rebels led 45-0 midway through the third quarter — on Nov. 9.
66: Years since Georgia played Texas in Austin. The Bulldogs will make that trip for an Oct. 19 showdown.
73.9: Percent of passes that Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck completed against the six ranked opponents Georgia faced last season.
132: Combined points that Georgia outscored its opponents by in the third quarter alone last year.
93,033: Updated seating capacity of Sanford Stadium due to new donor suites and a new press box, an increase of 287 over last season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.
AP photo by Mike Stewart / Alabama tight end Amari Niblack (84) and Georgia defensive back Malaki Starks track the ball during the SEC championship game last December in Atlanta.GEORGIA 2024 SCHEDULE
All times Eastern and p.m.
8/31 — Clemson in Atlanta (noon on ABC)
9/7 — TENNESSEE TECH (2 on ESPN+)
9/14 — at Kentucky (7:30 on ABC)
9/28 — at Alabama (7:30 on ABC)
10/5 — AUBURN (TBA)
10/12 — MISSISSIPPI STATE (TBA)
10/19 — at Texas (TBA)
11/2 — Florida in Jacksonville (3:30 on ABC)
11/9 — at Ole Miss (TBA)
11/16 —TENNESSEE (TBA)
11/23 — UMASS (12:45 on SEC Network)
11/29 — GEORGIA TECH (7:30 on ABC)