Georgia vs. Vanderbilt Series History
Today, the Vanderbilt Commodores are an afterthought, especially for Georgia football.
Vanderbilt has only recently started making frequent trips to bowl games. The Commodores have finished a season with at least seven wins only 11 times since the formation of the SEC in 1933, and they've only finished a season ranked three times.
Safe to say a loss to Vanderbilt is considered a black eye for Georgia. Nothing makes Georgia reevaluate its program more than a loss to Vanderbilt. In fact, three Georgia coaches since 1963 were relieved of their duties within three years of losing to Vanderbilt.
Johnny Griffith lost to Vandy in 1961, his first year as head coach. Griffith surrendered the position in 1963. Ray Goff lost to Vanderbilt 43-40 in Athens in 1994 and his head coaching career ended after the 1995 season. Mark Richt's 2013 Georgia squad fell 31-27 in 2013 and he too was fired after the 2015 campaign.
That wasn't always the case. Over 100 years ago, the roles were reversed. Vanderbilt was the dominant program in the south, while Georgia was still looking for consistency.
Vanderbilt's early success is the product of one man: head coach Dan McGugin. The 1951 College Football Hall of Fame inductee stalked the Vanderbilt sidelines from 1904-1934, with a break in 1918 for World War I. His record was 197-55-19 and his reign of terror featured nine Southern Intercollegiate championships and two Southern Conference titles.
Georgia rarely had an answer for McGugin's Vanderbilt teams. In 10 meetings, Vanderbilt's record over Georgia was 7-2-1. The Commodores also won four of the five meetings with Georgia before hiring McGugin.
Vanderbilt's 12-6 win in Athens in 1932 was the last meeting between the two schools for 20 years. In those 20 years, both programs changed radically.
Georgia hired Wally Butts in 1939 and by 1941 the Bulldogs were a nationally relevant team. Georgia played in its first bowl game in 1941, defeating TCU in the Orange Bowl. A year later, Georgia earned the national title after defeating UCLA in the Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs won the SEC Championship three times in the 1940s and played in a total of six bowl games, which was when that actually meant something.
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt crumbled after McGugin's retirement in 1934. The Commodores had the occasional seven- or eight-win season (back when that also meant a lot), but losses were becoming more frequent. In 30 seasons with McGugin, Vanderbilt had only one losing season. Vanderbilt had five losing seasons in the 15 years after his retirement.
After a 20-year break, Georgia and Vanderbilt met ib Nashville on Sept. 22, 1952. The Bulldogs won 19-7 and went on to beat the Commodores by a single score in 1954 and 1955. The Commodores bounced back with three straight wins from 1956-1958, but that was the last time Vanderbilt ever beat Georgia in consecutive years.
Georgia's rise to being one of the top teams in the SEC continued with another conference title in 1959, while Vanderbilt's descent to the bottom of the conference quickened in pace. Vince Dooley became Georgia's head coach in 1964, bringing a new level of consistency to the program.
Dooley only lost to Vanderbilt once in his 25 years as head coach, holding a 21-1-1 record over the Commodores. Most of those wins were incredibly lopsided. "Dooley's Dawgs" had 15 three-score wins over Vanderbilt, with Georgia exceeding 50 points in two of those wins.
Dooley's retirement did little to change the trajectory of the series. In the 31 years since Dooley retired, Georgia's record over Vanderbilt is 26-5. Overall, Georgia leads the all-time series with Vanderbilt 58-20-2, with 14 of Vanderbilt's wins coming within the first 24 meetings.
