Counting the Days – Day 100
Welcome to our countdown! This is the day where many college football fans start counting down the days. One hundred days from now, Georgia will be facing North Carolina at the Georgia Dome. Each day leading up to the season opener, Patrick Garbin and I will each show three unique and creative ways that we hope will relive memories of why that number is special to the Dawgs. We did a sneak preview for day 150, followed by day 125, but now the countdown really gets going. So, sit back and enjoy them, and if there are others that you can think of please mention them at The Dawgvent.
100 – by Dave McMahon
3 – One former Bulldog who has been in the news lately is the first person on my countdown: Brandon Boykin. While at Georgia, he returned four kickoff returns for touchdowns, three of which were for 100 yards, all of those resulting against SEC teams (South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky). Boykin is the only player in SEC history to have three kickoff returns each for exactly 100 yards. Also, he was the first Georgia player to have a 100-yard kickoff return, and one of only two Georgia players ever to accomplish as much. The other is mentioned later…
2 – For the majority of the 1950s, Georgia football was not so good. From 1950 to 1958, the Bulldogs had a losing record in five of those nine seasons. In 1959, it was a little different as they won the SEC title with a 10-1 overall and 7-0 conference record (they had been predicted to finish ninth that season). One of the big wins that year was against the Gators. Florida had defeated Georgia in each of the previous four seasons. One of the stars of the game was Charley Britt (I can say stars, since he was also a well-known actor after his football career was over). He played quarterback and defensive back for the Bulldogs and made several outstanding plays in the Cocktail Party that season, including one that Dawg fans old enough surely remember well. The Gators were driving in the third quarter and got to Georgia’s nine-yard line. Then, a Dick Allen pass just happen to deflect right to Britt, who caught the ball on the goal line, and ran the length of an entire field of mud for a touchdown. The Bulldogs won 21-10.
1 – Todd Gurley is on this list for multiple reasons. In his first ever collegiate game against Buffalo in 2012, he scored two touchdowns: the first, coming on a 10-yard run early in the first quarter. Later in that same quarter, Gurley caught a kickoff at the goal line, broke a few tackles, waited on some blocks, and then sprinted into the end zone for a 100-yard return. Also in that very same game, he rushed eight times for exactly 100 yards. Gurley had a 100-yard kickoff return again two years later in the opening game of the 2014 season against Clemson. He also had just one other game with exactly 100 yards rushing, occurring in the 2013 win over the Florida Gators.
100 – by Patrick Garbin
3 – 100 are the number of cents ($1) it cost for a game program at Sanford Stadium for 13 football seasons from 1966 through 1978. The cost was raised to $1.50 beginning with the 1979 season, where it remained for only three years before being raised to $2 in 1982. Currently, the cost of a program is $5, but it’s actually been higher than that before. From 2004 through 2007, the UGA home program cost a whopping $6!
2 – 100 is the percentage of point-after touchdown attempts placekicker Brandon Coutu made successfully during his Georgia career from 2004 through 2007—114 of 114. Notably, of the 10 Bulldog kickers in history who attempted at least 100 PATs, although a couple missed just one conversion (Rex Robinson and Blair Walsh), Coutu was the only one perfect. And, to date, he is also one of only five kickers in SEC history to have a 100 percent PAT success rate.
1 – 100 is for the 100-yard rushing game which has essentially eluded Georgia quarterbacks the last 40 years. Consider that since Ray Goff rushed for 100+ yards a few times during the 1975 and 1976 seasons, only twice has a Bulldog quarterback achieved the feat. Several have come close (Jeff Pyburn, Buck Belue, James Jackson several times, D.J. Shockley, and even Matthew Stafford), but only Joe Dupree and Quincy Carter, both true freshmen at the time, have recorded 100-yard rushing games. Interestingly, rushing for 119 yards on 18 carries, Dupree’s not only came in a loss—33-10 at Auburn in 1990—but resulted with him coming off the bench in reserve (he also “added” 11 yards on 1 of 14 passing). Occurring at Kentucky in 1998, Carter was the last Georgia signal-caller to rush for 100+ yards. In a 28-26 comeback victory over the Wildcats, he rushed for 114 yards on 14 carries, including a 49-yard scoring run.