I want to preface this by saying I was born in 1996, so I have not been suffering as long as some dawg fans on here. However, I have bled red and black since the day I was born. The first season I truly remember was the 2002 season. I remember David Pollack's strip sack for a touchdown like it was yesterday. That was truly the beginning of a life long commitment to the dawgs, and I have watched or attended every single game since that season. I was at Sanford to scream MUSAAAAAAA during the kickoffs. My fandom only increased when I attended and graduated from law school at UGA. I was a huge fan before, but nothing compares to being a student at UGA. By far the 3 best years of my life. Now, let's take a ride through memory lane to prepare us for tonight.
Life as a Georgia fan has been a roller coaster. The first year I was truly a fan, 2002, we won the SEC Championship and Sugar Bowl. I thought that meant a national championship was coming soon, but man, I was wrong. We made it back to the SEC Championship in 2003 just to get destroyed by a Nick Saban coached LSU team for the second time that season. 2004 was another lack luster year before 2005 started our long list of heart breaking losses against Auburn. While we did win the SEC Championship in 2005, it did not matter much as it merely set us up for a loss in the Sugar Bowl. We do not even need to speak of the 2006 season. The only good things that came out of that season was beating Auburn to ruin their season and the beginning of the Matthew Stafford era. This brings us to 2007. We should have won the national championship that year. We were by far the best team in the country by the end of the season, but the typical Mark Richt game in Knoxville cost us the opportunity. I am more bitter about 2007 than I am 2017/2018. 2007 was our year to win it all under Mark Richt, and we fell short once again. 2008 was another year of let downs starting with the infamous Blackout game against Alabama. Simply out played and out coached in Sanford that day. Losing to an inferior GT team was the perfect ending to describe that season. 2009 does not deserve to even be mentioned. A season with Joe Cox at QB does not even deserve an analysis. The same can be said for 2014 when Hutson Mason was the QB. I do not count those seasons. 2010 was another year of suffering for Georgia fans. I mean we lost to Colorado for God's sake. 2011 started off rocky, but we recovered to win the East once again only to get destroyed by LSU once again even though we did not allow a first down the entire first half. That game may have been different if it were not for Malcolm Mitchell's dropped touchdown. Tyrann Mathieu did not help our chances either. 2012 was the first time I cried over a UGA football game. The first true "heartbreak" I experienced as a fan. We all know what happened. If only Chris Conley had better cleats. If only we spiked the ball. To most fans, if only we had a different offensive coordinator (we missed you for a long time Mike Bobo, but we are happy to have Todd Monken now). 2012 was another year the playoff would have helped us. We would've had a rematch with Alabama. It may have been different the second time around, but we never got the chance. Another national championship slipped through our finger tips. I don't think we ever recovered from the game in 2012, and the way we played in 2013 made that obvious. 2014 doesn't count (see above). 2015 was a tough season. Mark Richt was beloved in Athens, but we, as fans, knew it was time for a change. We were embarrassed by Alabama and Florida once again. It was clear we had gone the furthest we could go with Mark Richt. 2016 marked the beginning of the Kirby Smart era, which has gone better than anyone could have imagined. We can all agree it was a rough start in 2016. I mean the best way to describe the 2016 season is the jet sweep to Isaiah Mckenzie on 4th and 1 against Vanderbilt. But hey, at least we beat Auburn to ruin their season once again. 2017 was the first year that it was clear that we were a different team under Kirby Smart. It started by UGA taking over South Bend to beat Notre Dame (thank you Terry Godwin). Kirby Smart made it clear to the rest of the SEC East that we were different. We were not going to lose games that we shouldn't lose. Then we arrived in Jordan-Hare Stadium... Man, they have some weird voo doo going on there. But we got our revenge when it mattered. Davin Bellamy then humbled Baker Mayfield to lead us to the national championship game against Alabama. We all know the heartbreak that ensued. I still lose sleep thinking about 2nd and 26. 2018 was a little bit of the same. We finally figured out how to defend Tua and Alabama said "meet Jalen again." 2019 was another great season minus the upset to South Carolina, but lets be honest, no one was beating that LSU team. Once in a lifetime team right there. 2020 was the short-lived return of Florida. We felt bad and gave them a win. They may never beat us again given the trajectory of that program.
There are many seasons between 1980 and 2002 that I was either not alive for or do not remember. But they have all prepared us for this season. This moment. 2021 has been an incredible season. We dominated every single team we played this year. We destroyed all of our rivals. We did not even have a close game during the regular season. Did we lose to Alabama in the SEC Championship again? Yes, but we finally get our rematch. We finally get the shot we did not get in 2007, 2017, and 2018. We finally get another shot at the beast. And we are ready. Every heartbreaking loss has led to this moment. The prayer at Jordan-Hare has led to this moment. The last second hail mary by Josh Dobbs has led to this moment. 2nd and 26 has led to this moment. Georgia fans have experienced the heartbreak over and over again since our last title in 1980. We are used to it. But that is why tonight will be different. It will be different when we finally win it all. Athens may never sleep again after tonight. My mind is telling me that tonight will be no different than every other season I have experienced since 2002, but my heart is telling me that tonight will be different. Tonight will finally be the night the championship trophy returns to Athens. Mark my words. Go Dawgs. Let's Attack the Day.
From David Greene to Matthew Stafford. From Aaron Murray to Greyson Lambert. From Jake Fromm to Stetson Bennett. From David Pollack to Greg Blue and Thomas Davis. From Rennie Curran to Jarvis Jones. From Roquan Smith to Nakobe Dean. From Justin Houston to Jordan Davis. From MUSA Smith to Verron Hayes. From Thomas Brown to Knowshon Moreno. From Todd Gurley to Nick Chubb. From Deandre Swift to Zamir White. From Fred Gibson to Mohamed Massaquoi. From AJ Green to Malcolm Mitchell. From Terry Godwin to George Pickens. From Billy Bennett to Blair Walsh. From Hot Rod to Hot Pod. From Todd Grantham to Dan Lanning. From Mike Bobo to Todd Monken. From Mark Richt to Kirby Smart. Finally, the legends Hershel Walker, Champ Bailey, Frank Sinkwich, Charley Tippi, Theron Sapp, Bill Stanfill, Terry Hoage, and many more. The path was led by these legends. The destination is Indy. We have arrived and we will conquer. Tonight we will reign victorious.
Dawgs 31-14.
Life as a Georgia fan has been a roller coaster. The first year I was truly a fan, 2002, we won the SEC Championship and Sugar Bowl. I thought that meant a national championship was coming soon, but man, I was wrong. We made it back to the SEC Championship in 2003 just to get destroyed by a Nick Saban coached LSU team for the second time that season. 2004 was another lack luster year before 2005 started our long list of heart breaking losses against Auburn. While we did win the SEC Championship in 2005, it did not matter much as it merely set us up for a loss in the Sugar Bowl. We do not even need to speak of the 2006 season. The only good things that came out of that season was beating Auburn to ruin their season and the beginning of the Matthew Stafford era. This brings us to 2007. We should have won the national championship that year. We were by far the best team in the country by the end of the season, but the typical Mark Richt game in Knoxville cost us the opportunity. I am more bitter about 2007 than I am 2017/2018. 2007 was our year to win it all under Mark Richt, and we fell short once again. 2008 was another year of let downs starting with the infamous Blackout game against Alabama. Simply out played and out coached in Sanford that day. Losing to an inferior GT team was the perfect ending to describe that season. 2009 does not deserve to even be mentioned. A season with Joe Cox at QB does not even deserve an analysis. The same can be said for 2014 when Hutson Mason was the QB. I do not count those seasons. 2010 was another year of suffering for Georgia fans. I mean we lost to Colorado for God's sake. 2011 started off rocky, but we recovered to win the East once again only to get destroyed by LSU once again even though we did not allow a first down the entire first half. That game may have been different if it were not for Malcolm Mitchell's dropped touchdown. Tyrann Mathieu did not help our chances either. 2012 was the first time I cried over a UGA football game. The first true "heartbreak" I experienced as a fan. We all know what happened. If only Chris Conley had better cleats. If only we spiked the ball. To most fans, if only we had a different offensive coordinator (we missed you for a long time Mike Bobo, but we are happy to have Todd Monken now). 2012 was another year the playoff would have helped us. We would've had a rematch with Alabama. It may have been different the second time around, but we never got the chance. Another national championship slipped through our finger tips. I don't think we ever recovered from the game in 2012, and the way we played in 2013 made that obvious. 2014 doesn't count (see above). 2015 was a tough season. Mark Richt was beloved in Athens, but we, as fans, knew it was time for a change. We were embarrassed by Alabama and Florida once again. It was clear we had gone the furthest we could go with Mark Richt. 2016 marked the beginning of the Kirby Smart era, which has gone better than anyone could have imagined. We can all agree it was a rough start in 2016. I mean the best way to describe the 2016 season is the jet sweep to Isaiah Mckenzie on 4th and 1 against Vanderbilt. But hey, at least we beat Auburn to ruin their season once again. 2017 was the first year that it was clear that we were a different team under Kirby Smart. It started by UGA taking over South Bend to beat Notre Dame (thank you Terry Godwin). Kirby Smart made it clear to the rest of the SEC East that we were different. We were not going to lose games that we shouldn't lose. Then we arrived in Jordan-Hare Stadium... Man, they have some weird voo doo going on there. But we got our revenge when it mattered. Davin Bellamy then humbled Baker Mayfield to lead us to the national championship game against Alabama. We all know the heartbreak that ensued. I still lose sleep thinking about 2nd and 26. 2018 was a little bit of the same. We finally figured out how to defend Tua and Alabama said "meet Jalen again." 2019 was another great season minus the upset to South Carolina, but lets be honest, no one was beating that LSU team. Once in a lifetime team right there. 2020 was the short-lived return of Florida. We felt bad and gave them a win. They may never beat us again given the trajectory of that program.
There are many seasons between 1980 and 2002 that I was either not alive for or do not remember. But they have all prepared us for this season. This moment. 2021 has been an incredible season. We dominated every single team we played this year. We destroyed all of our rivals. We did not even have a close game during the regular season. Did we lose to Alabama in the SEC Championship again? Yes, but we finally get our rematch. We finally get the shot we did not get in 2007, 2017, and 2018. We finally get another shot at the beast. And we are ready. Every heartbreaking loss has led to this moment. The prayer at Jordan-Hare has led to this moment. The last second hail mary by Josh Dobbs has led to this moment. 2nd and 26 has led to this moment. Georgia fans have experienced the heartbreak over and over again since our last title in 1980. We are used to it. But that is why tonight will be different. It will be different when we finally win it all. Athens may never sleep again after tonight. My mind is telling me that tonight will be no different than every other season I have experienced since 2002, but my heart is telling me that tonight will be different. Tonight will finally be the night the championship trophy returns to Athens. Mark my words. Go Dawgs. Let's Attack the Day.
From David Greene to Matthew Stafford. From Aaron Murray to Greyson Lambert. From Jake Fromm to Stetson Bennett. From David Pollack to Greg Blue and Thomas Davis. From Rennie Curran to Jarvis Jones. From Roquan Smith to Nakobe Dean. From Justin Houston to Jordan Davis. From MUSA Smith to Verron Hayes. From Thomas Brown to Knowshon Moreno. From Todd Gurley to Nick Chubb. From Deandre Swift to Zamir White. From Fred Gibson to Mohamed Massaquoi. From AJ Green to Malcolm Mitchell. From Terry Godwin to George Pickens. From Billy Bennett to Blair Walsh. From Hot Rod to Hot Pod. From Todd Grantham to Dan Lanning. From Mike Bobo to Todd Monken. From Mark Richt to Kirby Smart. Finally, the legends Hershel Walker, Champ Bailey, Frank Sinkwich, Charley Tippi, Theron Sapp, Bill Stanfill, Terry Hoage, and many more. The path was led by these legends. The destination is Indy. We have arrived and we will conquer. Tonight we will reign victorious.
Dawgs 31-14.
