Arizona St. coach known for ending win streaks

Athens — Georgia’s football team is on a double-digit winning streak for the first time in a quarter century.

Saturday’s victory at South Carolina was the Bulldogs’ 10th in a row, dating to last season — their longest win streak since they won 11 consecutive games in 1982 with Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker in the backfield and Vince Dooley on the sidelines.

The longest winning streak in UGA football history is 17 in a row, from the middle of the 1945 season through the opener of the 1947 season. Two other times, Georgia won 15 in a row — once from mid-season 1941 until late-season 1942 and again from the 1979 finale through the second game of 1981.

A win Saturday would match the 1982 streak as the Bulldogs’ fourth longest. But it’ll have to come against an Arizona State team whose coach, Dennis Erickson, has a track record of beating teams with long winning streaks.

“I was reading through their media information,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Tuesday, “and I saw where he’s been responsible as a coach for stopping three teams that had streaks of 10 or more [wins].”

When Erickson was coaching Miami, the Hurricanes stopped a 23-game Notre Dame winning streak in 1989, a 14-game Florida State winning streak in 1990 and a 16-game FSU winning streak in 1991.

“Now all of a sudden we have hit the magic number 10,” Richt said, “and I’m sure they are going to bring that up to their team and they will have confidence to stop our streak right now.”

Georgia’s streak is the second longest active winning streak in Division IA, trailing only BYU’s 13 consecutive wins.