2017 never ended with a championship for Georgia, but one night in September helped explain why that season still feels bigger than the final result.
The Bulldogs had already given fans plenty to talk about by then - the blowout of Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia Tech, the South Bend Takeover, and the Rose Bowl win. Still, every special run has a game where it starts to feel real. For Georgia, that moment came on Sept. 23, when it flattened unbeaten Mississippi State in Sanford Stadium.
The setup made the matchup easy to frame as a trap. Georgia was coming off the emotional high of beating Notre Dame, and there were fair questions about whether Jake Fromm and company could keep that level from one week to the next. Mississippi State, meanwhile, arrived with Dan Mullen’s reputation for squeezing big results out of a program that could punch above its weight.
That doubt vanished fast.
Less than three minutes in, Fromm hit Terry Godwin on a flea flicker for 59 yards, and Georgia was off and running. By halftime, the Bulldogs led 14-3, and Mississippi State already looked like it had spent the night second-guessing how to defend Georgia’s offense.
The final numbers told the rest of the story. Georgia rolled up 404 yards and won 31-3, with Nick Chubb scoring two rushing touchdowns to help push the lead to 21-3 in the third quarter. Fromm also connected with Isaac Nauta on a 41-yard pass in the second half.
The game did more than add another lopsided win to the 2017 ledger. It showed that Georgia was not going to be defined by one signature victory.
It also hinted that Mississippi State had hit its ceiling under Mullen. The Bulldogs finished 2017 with four losses, including three to Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn, and Mullen left Stark Vegas for Florida after the season.
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