Georgia - Tennessee: A Brief History
As of 2018, Georgia and Tennessee have faced off 48 times - and the series is tied at 23-23-2. It is the only series the Bulldogs play annually they don’t have a winning record against their opponent.
The series started in 1899 with the Vols winning 5-0 in Knoxville. The game between the two has always been an entertaining and important one, but one that was rarely played because of conference scheduling rules.
Perhaps the most important UGA-Tennessee game in history was the 1980 edition in Knoxville. The Vols built a 15-0 lead in the third quarter. The Dawgs got a safety to get on the board in the just after that. But Vince Dooley knew UGA needed a spark. That’s when Dooley put true freshman Herschel Walker into the game and altered college football history. After running over Tennessee’s Bill Bates to score the first of many touchdowns in his college career, Walker scored again to put the Dawgs up 16-15.
Still, Georgia had to hold on as the Vols drove to the UGA four-yard line late in the contest. But the Dawgs stripped the ball and fell on it to preserve the win on the way to the 1980 national title.
When the SEC moved into divisions in 1992, the series kicked into overdrive as the two programs started meeting each year for the first times in their histories. Rarely roadblocks to one another before that, now the Vols and Dawgs would have to confront one another each year in order to win the SEC. Since the conference went to divisions that year neither team has won the conference without first beating the other. UGA has never won the SEC East without first defeating Tennessee.
The Vols took hold of the series in a big way in 1992 with a 34-31 nail biter in Athens over the Bulldogs. The Vols ripped off eight games in a row in the series. Only one of those games, in 1995, was decided in crunch time. Tennessee ruled the 1990s in the fight between the two programs.
But a new century saw Georgia come back hard at the Vols. No. 19 Georgia’s 21-10 win over No. 21 Tennessee broke the Vols’ nine-game winning streak in the series, but it was the following year when the series changed dramatically.
New UGA coach Mark Richt took the Bulldogs to Knoxville and shocked the No. 6 Vols 26-24 with a game-winning play called P-44. It is known more affectionally as the Hobnail Boot thanks to the radio call from the legendary voice of the Bulldogs Larry Munson. The Bulldogs took momentum from that game and have controlled the series ever since - winning 13 of 21 contests between the two.
In 2003, No. 8 Georgia blew out the No. 13 Vols 41-14 thanks to Sean Jones’ touchdown just before the half. The win gave the Bulldogs back-to-back SEC East titles. A year later No. 17 Tennessee stunned No. 3 Georgia 19-14 in Athens on the way to the SEC East championship.
2005 was an epic showdown between the two. UGA DB Thomas Flowers’ punt return for a touchdown sealed No. 5 Georgia’s 27-14 win over No. 8 Tennessee. In 2006, No. 13 Tennessee came from a 17-point first half deficit to beat No. 10 UGA 51-33 in Athens. The win put the Vols on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
The two programs traded one-sided wins until the 2011 game in Knoxville. In that game, the Bulldogs took home a 20-12 win over the Vols on the way to the SEC East title. A year later No. 5 Georgia survived a shootout with Tennessee as Aaron Murray threw for 286 yards and two touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ 51-44 win.
The only overtime game in the series was a year later as Aaron Murray and the No. 6 Bulldogs drove the field with only 1:49 to play in the game to tie it with a touchdown. In overtime the Vols fumbled into their own end zone, and the Bulldogs’ Marshall Morgan booted a 40-yard field goal to win it. Todd Gurley ran for 208 yards and two touchdowns a year later in Athens as the No. 12 Bulldogs’ won a 35-32 track meet in Athens.
In 2015, Tennessee came from behind to beat the No. 19 Bulldogs 38-31in Knoxville. But it was the game a year later in Athens that will likely go down as the craziest ending in the series.
No. 11 Tennessee took home one of the biggest wins in school history, but not without a wild ending. After Jacob Eason’s shocking 47-yard touchdown pass for the No. 25 Bulldogs to take a 31-28 lead, Tennessee’s Josh Dobbs connected with Jauan Jennings on a 43-yard Hail Mary to win the game 34-31 as time expired.
No. 7 Georgia’s 41-0 win over the Vols in Knoxville a season later still stands as one of the most lopsided wins in series history. The winner of Saturday’s game in Knoxville will take the lead of the series. Should that be the Dawgs it would be for the first time since the 1980s.