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Georgia Football

99 Days Until Game Week for UGA

May 16, 2019
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ATHENS - The number 99 is an extreme - either you are right on top of 100, or you are a long way from zero. 

Unlike 100, you can actually wear the number 99. Charles Johnson wore it well at UGA in middle 2000s. Jordan Davis wears No. 99 last now.

There are a slew of significant 99-yard plays and drives that have happened over the decades of UGA football. Here are a few:

On November 5, 1983 John Lastinger took the Bulldogs on a game-winning 16-play, 99-yard drive to beat the Gators in Jacksonville. Georgia took over at its own one-yard line and eventually Barry Young, who had backed up Herschel Walker for years, scored on a one-yard TD with 13:18 to play in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs held on from there to beat Florida 10-9. 

The Bulldogs drove the ball 99 yards to put the final touches on a 21-10 win over the Vols on October 7, 2000 in Athens. The ten-play 99-yard dive culminated in Musa Smith’s one-yard TD score. It was Georgia’s first win over the Vols since the 1980s. 

Mark Richt’s first game as UGA coach featured a 99-yard drive. The second possession of the blowout win over Arkansas State was an 11-play, 99-yard drive that put the Bulldogs up 14-0 over Arkansas State. Musa Smith scored a TD on a three-yard run. The final was UGA 45, Arkansas State 17 on September 1, 2001. 

Georgia has also scored on 99-yard drives against Central Michigan (2008) and at Ole Miss (2011). 

Perhaps most notably, the Bulldogs have defeated 99 AP ranked teams in history. Kirby Smart has taken out six of them in two years (2016 - No. 22 UNC and No. 9 Auburn; 2017 - No. 24 Notre Dame, No. 17 Mississippi State, No. 2 Auburn and No. 2 Oklahoma). 

Only once in history, at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville against the top-ranked Gators, have the Bulldogs defeated the No. 1 team in the country. That win came on November 9, 1985. Surprisingly, UGA has only played the No. 1 team in the country five times in school history.

Georgia got its 99th win in school history on October 1, 1921 against Mercer. The Bulldogs shutout the Bears 28-0. Georgia’s 99th loss came on October 26, 1929 to the Gators in Jacksonville - an 18-6 win for the Gators. Three days later the Wall Street Crash of 1929, known as Black Tuesday, occurred.

Thomas Brown took a kickoff back 99 yards to score against Vanderbilt in 2006, but he later left the game with a torn ACL and the No. 16 Bulldogs lost the Vanderbilt in Athens on October 14, 2006. 

In 1978, Lindsey Scott returned a kickoff 99 yards for a TD against LSU to power the Bulldogs to a 24-17 win in Baton Rouge on October 14, 1978.

Odell Thurman made Sanford Stadium explode on November 15, 2003 with his 99-yard interception return for a TD. The play cemented the No. 7 Bulldogs’ win over Auburn in Athens. It was Georgia’s first back-to-back win over the Tigers since 1991-92.

Damian Swann holds the record for the longest fumble return for a TD in UGA history - a 99-yard return that gave the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead midway in the third quarter. But the No. 8 Bulldogs couldn’t put the No. 16 Jackets away, and lost 30-24 in OT on November 29, 2014.  

Top UGA players to ever wear the No. 99

DL Charles Johnson

DL Jordan Davis

Tags: Football
 
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