Counting the Days – Day 42

Welcome to our countdown! We are less than seven weeks until the first game. Each day leading up to the season opener, Patrick Garbin and I will show three unique and creative ways why we think that number is special to the Dawgs. According to the book and film, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is “42,” which is good since that is where today’s countdown is at. There will not be any mention of Arthur Dent is this article, but there will be mentions about players who made some serious dents in Georgia history, whether on opposing players or in the Bulldogs’ record book...

By Dave McMahon—Twitter @dave_mc_stats

3 – Charles Grant was one of the best high school players from the state of Georgia in recent history. He was the Class A Defensive Player of the Year in 1996, and the Class A Offensive Player of the Year in 1997. After graduating from Miller County, he went to Hargrave Military Academy for a year before enrolling at the University of Georgia. It was on defense where Grant left his mark at Georgia, and later in the NFL, as he registered 136 tackles and 15 sacks in three seasons for the Dawgs. During his freshman season, Grant played on offense, as well. The big guy had 17 rushes for 79 yards and three touchdowns for the season, including a 42-yard touchdown run, and a short scoring run against Kentucky. By the way, also versus the Wildcats, Grant tallied three sacks.

2 – Another star player from the 1990s was linebacker No. 42 Randall Godfrey, a tackling machine for head coach Ray Goff’s crew back in the day. As a freshman, Godfrey led the Dawgs in tackles with 114, and was named the SEC Defensive Freshman of the Year. He led the team again with another 114 tackles as a sophomore, and managed 102 tackles as a junior despite having an ankle injury. During his senior season, Godfrey battled with a hamstring injury and only totaled 35 tackles. His 365 career tackles rank in the top ten all time in Georgia history.

1 – Like I said in a recent article, Georgia has appeared in 51 bowl games. The very first bowl game for the Bulldogs was the 1942 Orange Bowl against TCU played on January 1, 1942. The Bulldogs won the game 40-26 as Frank Sinkwich (who would win the Heisman Trophy the following season) had three passing touchdowns and a running touchdown. He also had a broken jaw at the time. Georgia’s first postseason touchdown was courtesy of Ken Keuper’s two-yard run in the first quarter. The '42 season was also special for Georgia as it was the Bulldogs' first ever SEC Championship, and they were recognized as National Champions in six different polls. Here are some highlights of that season's Heisman winner:

By Patrick Garbin—Twitter @PGarbinDT

3—Towards the end of his senior season of 2004, David Greene broke the NCAA record established by Tennessee’s Peyton Manning seven years before for the most victories as a starter at quarterback. Greene’s 42 wins would remain the all-time career record until surpassed by Texas’ Colt McCoy in 2009; however, the former-Bulldog signal-caller’s mark remains ranked tied for third in history entering 2016:

2—In 2012, when red-wearing Georgia hosted Ole Miss, which donned gray jerseys, it marked the first time in 42 years—since the 1970 Georgia-Georgia Tech game played in Athens—that the Bulldogs appeared in a game whereby one of the two teams did not wear white jerseys.

1—At Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Md., Bill Krug did it all: playing linebacker, he was named The Washington Post’s Metropolitan defensive player of the year for 1973; he rushed for over 800 yards at fullback; he ran back punts and kickoffs, and even place-kicked. Crediting former Georgia player and Washington Redskin Joe Tereshinski, Sr., the Washington [D.C] Touchdown Club’s high school player of the year—“a man among boys”—was lured 600 miles south from Maryland to UGA. After playing on the junior varsity in 1974, No. 42 Krug excelled at roverback from 1975-1977, establishing himself as the first of Georgia’s decade-long line of exceptional rovers from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s (followed by Pat Collins, Chris Welton, Terry Hoage, and John Little). Relying heavily on intuition, the quick 6-foot-1, 205-pounder totaled 233 tackles and five interceptions from his sophomore through senior campaigns. Still, it’s too bad statistics for sacks, tackles for loss, blocked punts, and other big plays weren’t officially kept in Krug’s day because he tallied several to many of each. By the midseason of 1976, the big-play rover, who would eventually become a three-time All-SEC honoree, reportedly had surpassed “[two-time All-American defensive tackle] George Patton as the most prolific maker of big plays in the Vince Dooley era at Georgia.” An example of the big-play variety Krug perhaps excelled at the most—the “play the angle” strip of the football: