The 2017 Georgia football season seems so long ago, especially when you consider the success of 2021 and 2022.
But as distant as that special season may seem at times, there’s no doubt that it put Georgia football under Kirby Smart on the map.
The Rose Bowl was every bit of exciting and jubilant. It rightly belongs in a place among the top wins in Georgia football history.
But every season that rates as special has its coming of the moment game. It may not be the most special win, but it’s a moment where you knew that things were shaping up to be something special.
For Georgia, that time was in 2017 when Mississippi State came to town.
Nationally, the Bulldogs reputation was a team that was good but at times, not quite able to be great. Even in times where Georgia got a big win, being able to be consistent week to week was a challenge. A Jim Donnan team flummoxed against Auburn a game after upsetting Florida. Mark Richt’s 2004 season was soiled by a Tennessee loss a week after knocking off LSU.
So fans could have been forgiven in 2017 of caution, as MSU came to Athens two weeks after a 20-19 win at Notre Dame.
There was also the fact that Dan Mullen’s Maroon Bulldogs came to Athens on a roll, 3-0 after dominating 12th-ranked LSU. That made MSU a trendy pick to knock off Georgia.
But like the mostly one-sided coaching rivalry between Kirby Smart and Dan Mullen, this one ended with Mullen’s team being stuffed in a locker.
Georgia played like it was out to make a statement that night, winning 31-3.
And the hammer was dropped from the start on Mississippi State.
On Georgia’s very first play from scrimmage, a perfectly-run flea flicker from Jake Fromm to Terry Godwin was good for a 59-yard touchdown, starting what was then a career-high 201 passing yards from the Houston County gunslinger.
It was a play where, once the ball was pitched back to Fromm, everyone in Athens-Clarke County knew what the result would be, and the reaction from the crowd showed.
On the night, Georgia mounted over 400 offensive yards and held MSU quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to just over 100. Nick Chubb also rushed for two touchdowns and 81 yards.
By the end of the night, the Dawgs sent a message that this season could be special.
It turns out that was the case.
Go Dawgs!