Like Bill Connelly, I am a firm believer that college football’s 2007 season is the greatest of my lifetime. So, enjoy his reboot, in words and pictures.
It was an amazing year from the get go, starting with Appy State’s immortal upset of Michigan. LSU’s season was full of plot twists from start to finish. Then, there was West Virginia simply needing to get by “the s*****est f***ing team in the f***ing world” and they were in. But they di’int.
Also, Darren McFadden.
This, too.
October 27: No. 20 Georgia 42, No. 9 Florida 30
And just like that, Georgia became the best team in the country (a few weeks too late for it to matter).
That early season loss to South Carolina was a killer.
Really, there were a number of teams that could have staked a claim to being the best after the regular season. It’s the one time an eight-team playoff would have been a worthy experience.
I saw when Bill shared the advanced box score for the USC / Stanford game yesterday and that Stanford had a 1 percent win expectancy and my immediate impression was “Yeah – that sounds like 2007.”
The amazing part was how we nearly backed in…we were a Kentucky FG away from going to the SEC Championship and whooping the shit out of Yellashoe and then OSU.
The Kentucky FG was just one weird, bad break at the end of the season, TN also got a strange bounce of a fumble against SC that saved them, and another FG disaster against Vandy. Three Hail Mary’s answered in the final 3 games, any of which could have put us in against LSU in the SECCG, a time when they were missing key players.
I remember watching that Kentucky/Tennessee game. Kentucky was so close to sending us to Atlanta. Heartbreaking….That dropped pass by MoMass in the endzone in the Cocks game. A fun season, but so frustrating. The Auburn and Florida games made it all worth it.
Didn’t check the schedule before my wife scheduled our wedding in ’96. She scheduled it on Opening Day of the Donnan era. I had many friends send their Congrats, along with their condolences that they were going to the game. I made her change the time to 2PM, so the rest of us could at least go watch the game. At least I’m glad the marriage has turned out better than the game did.
Good catch, Derek. I said out loud, “No! It was Tony Wilson!”. That is etched in my brain. My cousin got married that day. Outside, right next to Lake Blacksheare. It was Africa hot. I watched the first half as soon as the wedding ended and then had to haul butt home thirty minutes away to catch ‘re second half. Still can’t believe we lost to that shitty SC team.
That’s still one of my favorite games. Derek’s right. Howard was a Terminator in that game. You could almost see the red eyes glowing behind his face mask.
A guy I work with, a Wisconsin fan and overall CFB fan, has told me previously that he believes that game ruined Colt’s future NFL career. He holds that Colt was never the same after the beating he took in the Sugar Bowl. Hard to argue when you see the compilation of the pounding he took that game.
What I remember about 2007 is the concerted effort by ESPN talking heads, all of whom held grudges against Georgia, engaging in a campaign to keep the Dawgs out of the BCSNCG. Never saw anything like it before or since. Granny Holts (former South Carolina HC), Jesse Palmer ( former FU player), Charles Davis (former UT player), and Kirk Herbstreit (former tOSU QB who got beat to death by the Georgia D in a bowl in his last collegiate game) formed a chorus of “don’t let Georgia in the Big game” and they all had a conflict of interest. F#ck them and ESPN for allowing it. At the end of the season Georgia had the best team in the country and got screwed over.
Don’t forget the biggest Dawg-hater of them all, Mark May. I think he hated Georgia more than any talking head in history. The crux of his disdain was the 1980 season. He was a senior on a really good one-loss Pitt team that got passed over for a 9-1-1 Notre Dame team for the Sugar Bowl. Pitt had to settle for the Gator Bowl and went on to destroy a South Carolina team we struggled with at home. He and most guys on that Pitt team believe they would’ve beaten us and been national champs. I’m just glad he wasn’t on the 81’ team to give him a real reason to be smug about us.
I got recalled into the Marines that year. The last game I went to was the UT game. I watched the Florida game from NC and didn’t leave to go to Iraq until after the bowl season was over. It was a great year and really exciting.
“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
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Get The Picture 
Just hand the ball to Knowshon. That’s all we had to do.
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In the USCe game that is…
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Woulda been cool to have gotten off the bus for the first half in Knoxville too.
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We were damned lucky to win the next game in Nashville, too.
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I saw when Bill shared the advanced box score for the USC / Stanford game yesterday and that Stanford had a 1 percent win expectancy and my immediate impression was “Yeah – that sounds like 2007.”
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The genesis of the Herbstreit Doctrine.
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Actually, that started the season before, when he argued that Michigan should play for the national title instead of Florida.
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Good point. I guess 2007 was the first time it was enforced. Another Bulldog point of pride!
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Having Matt throw that many times vs USC in 2007 was ludicrous.
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Then we just didn’t show up in Knoxville.
Miserable year as far as I’m concerned.
Save the Cocktail Party. That was…a celebration!
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Auburn game was the most fun I’ve ever had at a Georgia game. Although I still think it was a bit of overkill for an Auburn team ranked #17.
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Cocktail Party was marvelous, the Auburn game was marvelous and the Sugar Bowl massacre was marvelous. I rather enjoyed all of them.
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Definitely enjoyed all of those!
Don’t forget the final beatdown Richt put on Mr. Chantastic.
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The amazing part was how we nearly backed in…we were a Kentucky FG away from going to the SEC Championship and whooping the shit out of Yellashoe and then OSU.
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The Kentucky FG was just one weird, bad break at the end of the season, TN also got a strange bounce of a fumble against SC that saved them, and another FG disaster against Vandy. Three Hail Mary’s answered in the final 3 games, any of which could have put us in against LSU in the SECCG, a time when they were missing key players.
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The loudest the Tech fans got all day was when they announced the final Kentucky-Tennessee score…
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I remember watching that Kentucky/Tennessee game. Kentucky was so close to sending us to Atlanta. Heartbreaking….That dropped pass by MoMass in the endzone in the Cocks game. A fun season, but so frustrating. The Auburn and Florida games made it all worth it.
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I thought it was Michael Moore?
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It may have been. I was at a wedding reception for my sister in law (!!!!) and watching it in the hotel bar while the whole family was pissed at me.
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You’re the one that should have been pissed at them.
Good grief..some folks’ priorities.
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Didn’t check the schedule before my wife scheduled our wedding in ’96. She scheduled it on Opening Day of the Donnan era. I had many friends send their Congrats, along with their condolences that they were going to the game. I made her change the time to 2PM, so the rest of us could at least go watch the game. At least I’m glad the marriage has turned out better than the game did.
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Tony Wilson.
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That’s right. Good call, Derek. I was torn between Wilson and Moore.
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That was so painful to watch him miss that FG and send it into OT. Personified UGA in the 2000s.
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Vandy blew it too. Both UK and the Dores had them and blew it.
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Good catch, Derek. I said out loud, “No! It was Tony Wilson!”. That is etched in my brain. My cousin got married that day. Outside, right next to Lake Blacksheare. It was Africa hot. I watched the first half as soon as the wedding ended and then had to haul butt home thirty minutes away to catch ‘re second half. Still can’t believe we lost to that shitty SC team.
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That Sugar Bowl ‘highlight’ is no such thing. I want to see Colt Brennan rubbed into the turf. Wait, here it is!
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Would have been nice to have brought that kind of desire to the ’19 Sugar Bowl.
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Watching that I was thinking the same thing Stoop.
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Willie is ready for a comeback!
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Well, this year was meaningless, apparently.
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Marcus Howard was a machine in that game. A mean, vicious, unfeeling, ice-cold, brutal, sadistic machine.
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On one of those hits, I think I saw Brennan’s soul leave his body for a bit.
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That’s still one of my favorite games. Derek’s right. Howard was a Terminator in that game. You could almost see the red eyes glowing behind his face mask.
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A guy I work with, a Wisconsin fan and overall CFB fan, has told me previously that he believes that game ruined Colt’s future NFL career. He holds that Colt was never the same after the beating he took in the Sugar Bowl. Hard to argue when you see the compilation of the pounding he took that game.
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What I remember about 2007 is the concerted effort by ESPN talking heads, all of whom held grudges against Georgia, engaging in a campaign to keep the Dawgs out of the BCSNCG. Never saw anything like it before or since. Granny Holts (former South Carolina HC), Jesse Palmer ( former FU player), Charles Davis (former UT player), and Kirk Herbstreit (former tOSU QB who got beat to death by the Georgia D in a bowl in his last collegiate game) formed a chorus of “don’t let Georgia in the Big game” and they all had a conflict of interest. F#ck them and ESPN for allowing it. At the end of the season Georgia had the best team in the country and got screwed over.
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Don’t forget the biggest Dawg-hater of them all, Mark May. I think he hated Georgia more than any talking head in history. The crux of his disdain was the 1980 season. He was a senior on a really good one-loss Pitt team that got passed over for a 9-1-1 Notre Dame team for the Sugar Bowl. Pitt had to settle for the Gator Bowl and went on to destroy a South Carolina team we struggled with at home. He and most guys on that Pitt team believe they would’ve beaten us and been national champs. I’m just glad he wasn’t on the 81’ team to give him a real reason to be smug about us.
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But, but, Tebow had a hurt shoulder
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I got recalled into the Marines that year. The last game I went to was the UT game. I watched the Florida game from NC and didn’t leave to go to Iraq until after the bowl season was over. It was a great year and really exciting.
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As a Georgia fan, It’s my least favorite season with no real competition.
As a football fan, it’s one of the better ones.
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That was a fun time in Jacksonville. The Gator fans were obnoxious before the game and quiet afterwards.
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