Saturday’s meeting between Georgia and Oklahoma brings back the kind of memory Bulldogs fans don’t forget.
The teams have only met once before, and that first matchup turned into a Rose Bowl classic in 2018. Georgia’s 54-48 double-overtime win over the Sooners still sits as one of the defining nights of the Kirby Smart era, even if Smart himself kept his initial reaction brief.
"It got us to the national championship," Smart said.
He expanded a little more when asked about the game later, pointing to the stakes, the chance to play in the Rose Bowl, the work of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, and Baker Mayfield - once a rival, now someone Smart considers a friend.
"It was a great game," Smart said.
It was more than that. Oklahoma jumped out to a 31-14 lead, but Tae Crowder’s heads-up recovery of a squib kick helped Georgia grab three points before halftime. From there, Chubb, Michel and Javon Wims each scored the next three touchdowns to swing the game and set up a wild finish.
Mayfield answered with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Dimitri Flowers to tie it with just under nine minutes left in regulation. Then Michel lost a fumble, and Steven Parker took it back 46 yards for a touchdown. Georgia responded again, this time with Chubb’s game-tying score with 55 seconds remaining.
The points dried up a bit in overtime, with both teams settling for field goals to open the extra periods. Lorenzo Carter then stopped Oklahoma from adding another field goal in the second overtime, giving Georgia one last chance.
All the Bulldogs needed was another Rodridgo Blankenship field goal to move on to the national title game. Instead, Michel took a direct snap on second down, bounced left, found daylight and finished the 27-yard touchdown run that ended it.
That win sent Smart’s second Georgia team one victory away from a championship.
For some of the current Bulldogs, that game is still vivid. Inside linebacker Justin Williams was six years away from joining Georgia, but he watched every minute. Center Drew Bobo was living in Colorado then, and he was locked in, too.
"It just was exciting. A lot of points scored, so that was fun to see and fun to watch," Bobo said.
Smart has since added two national championships, but the Rose Bowl still looms large for Georgia fans because of how dramatic it was and what it meant. With Oklahoma coming to Sanford Stadium on Saturday, the setting is different and the stakes aren’t the same, but the Bulldogs would still love to recreate the noise and the result.
"I started thinking about it today, just how exciting the atmosphere's going to be, how packed it's going to be on Saturday, and how loud the crowd's going to be," Bobo said. "I'm just really excited for [the younger players] to get their first taste of what a big home game's like."
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Georgia Fans Wont Love The Latest Shot At This Offense
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The latest satirical rundown of the 16 SEC teams leaned into that tension, using humor and opinion to take aim at the way Georgia has looked in this stretch. For a fan base used to more polished answers on that side of the ball, it is the sort of offhand shot that can stick, even if the broader conference mess gives plenty of other programs reasons to hear it too. [Read more 🡒]