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[su_spacer size=”40″] As big as this past Saturday’s battle with Alabama was, this weekend’s tussle with Tennessee is even bigger.
[su_spacer size=”20″] The arithmetic is pretty simple. If Georgia wins this, the Bulldogs control their own fate in pursuit of a berth in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, and a crack at a truly special season is in play.
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But this one stretches well beyond the standings and the race for Atlanta. The Bulldogs got jack-hammered last weekend by Alabama. If there is any shot at being outstanding this year, the Bulldogs must rise up and succeed on redemption Saturday. The Volunteers have lost three tight contests that well could have/should have gone the other way. Georgia does not need to be that breakthrough win for the Vols.
[su_spacer size=”40″] There are other bits of history at stake. The all-time series is tied at 21-21-2, the Bulldogs drawing even on the heels of a five game winning streak against the Volunteers. Pulling even and possibly ahead in the all-time match-up between these two perennial SEC powers seemed a pigskin dream for the Georgia faithful during the 1990s. From 1989-1999, Georgia and Tennessee met nine times. Cue the Ferris Bueller, the Bulldogs lost . . . nine times. That’s the longest losing streak the Bulldogs have ever suffered to any foe, topping even the infamous drought against The Enemy from 1949-56.
[su_spacer size=”40″] But the 21st century has been a different story. Starting with Jim Donnan’s fifth Bulldog team in 2000 and through the Mark Richt era thus far, Georgia is an impressive 11-4 against the Volunteers in the 2000’s. A 2004 loss to Tennessee is one that got away, costing the Bulldogs a shot at the SEC crown, so a 12-3 mark would be even sweeter. But still, 11-4 is awfully good, 10-4 for Richt.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Amongst Richt’s accomplishments at Georgia, his success against the Volunteers is amongst the list-toppers. In fact, his first signature victory at the helm in Athens came on the banks of the Tennessee River in 2001.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Georgia’s 26-24 victory over the Volunteers is forever etched in Georgia lore. Travis Stephens had taken a screen pass and scampered for a long touchdown to put the Vols and a rocking Neyland Stadium on top 24-20. But Tennessee squib kicked. Damien Gary, who returned a punt for a touchdown in the first half, made a heady play. Redshirt freshman quarterback David Greene was Arctic cool. Randy McMichael hauled in a pair of spectacular catches, and then with five seconds to go, Greene, on a beautiful play and fake, threw the game-winning touchdown to Verron Haynes. Georgia smartly took a knee on the extra point to eliminate the kick block and runback for two and the tie. The Bulldogs emerged victorious, and the series had clearly turned Georgia’s way. That victory in Knoxville was Georgia’s first since September the 6th, 1980, and the famed 16-15 Bulldog triumph that introduced Herschel Walker to the college football world and launched the red and black on the dream 12-0 National and SEC Championship perfect campaign.
[su_spacer size=”40″] That 2001 Georgia team didn’t find its way to Atlanta for the title tilt, the Vols did. The Bulldogs lost a pair of heart-breakers to South Carolina and Auburn that could have gone the other way (along with a two touchdown loss to a great Florida team). Georgia lost four games, falling also to Boston College in the Music City Bowl. It was strikingly similar to 1965-66. The Bulldogs pulled off the upset of Alabama 18-17 in 1965 thanks to the famed flea-flicker and subsequent two point conversion. That Georgia team got hit by injuries and lost four times. But the table was set, and in 1966 the Bulldogs went 10-1, captured the SEC title and finished No. 4 nationally. In similar fashion that 2001 win at Tennessee helped set the program on a championship direction. The following season, which included uber-impressive back-to-back wins at Alabama and over Tennessee between the hedges, Georgia would win the SEC championship, post a 13-1 record and finish No. 3 nationally.
[su_spacer size=”40″] On Georgia’s next two trips, the Bulldogs came away with memorable triumphs. The 2003 game was highlighted by one of the biggest plays of the 2000s. Hanging on 13-7 in the closing seconds of the first half and Tennessee on the move looking to take the lead, All-American safety Sean Jones scooped up a Volunteer fumble and raced 92 yards to paydirt, sending Neyland Stadium into a stunned, deafening silence – with the exception of the 12,000 or so Georgia fans who were in utter elation. The Bulldogs dominated the second half and cruised to a 41-14 triumph, a week after the Bulldogs had defeated Alabama 37-23. In back-to-back years, beating Alabama and Tennessee in successive weeks remains an enormous feather in the caps of the Bulldogs of 2002 and 2003.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In 2005, en route to the SEC Championship, Georgia won 27-14 in Knoxville, with Thomas Flowers punt return for a touchdown and a Thomas Brown TD scamper putting the game away. As an interesting aside, Tennessee was credited with a touchdown on the game’s final play. The receiver was down on the two yard line. Perhaps Al Ford was the replay official and they chose not to review, but no harm. The win was Georgia’s third straight in Knoxville. It put Richt in some exclusive company, joining Paul “Bear” Bryant and Gene Stallings, both of Alabama (of course if you don’t know that, you probably aren’t reading this), as the lone coaches to accomplish that feat.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Georgia got blown out in Knoxville in 2007 and 2009, but the Bulldogs have won on their last two trips, most recently the 34-31 overtime thriller of 2013.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Saturday represents an opportunity for a second three-game winning streak in Knoxville, which would be a wonderful accomplishment for the program and put the Bulldogs in position to potentially produce a special season.
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