Georgia Football: Remembering My Hob Nail Boot Story
By Mike Stowe
Mike Stowe shares his memories of one of the most famous Georgia Football stories of all.
Georgia vs. Tennessee 2001. Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. While the Georgia Football team was not completely irrelevant at the time, they seemed to be a team that were outmatched. “A game we had no business being in” as the G.O.A.T college football announcer , Larry Munson used to say. But yet we went up there and took everything the #6 ranked Vols had to throw at us. That included a late 62 yard touchdown by Travis Stephens. That score seemed to be the nail in the coffin for the Dawgs.
With only 52 seconds left on the clock, how was this young team supposed to drive down the field in this hostile environment against what appeared on paper to be a superior team and put themselves in a position to win? Coach Mark Richt and a young David Greene had an answer for that. And on the touchdown scoring play of said drive, in typical Larry Munson fashion, he made a call that was one of the greatest of all time. It was one of those moments that I’ll never forget where I was, who I was with, and the reaction of everyone in the room.
It’s rare I give up a football fan. I’m not going to lie….I gave up that day.
That late TD by Stephens deflated me. We were watching at my wife’s parents’ house. Even though I was the most hardcore Georgia fan there by far, that game had everyone in the house absolutely glued to the TV. My wife, who was already a Dawg fan but not as interested in it then as she would eventually become was there cheering. My father-in-law law, who got his kicks off of picking at me by telling me Georgia was going to lose was into it. Even my sister in law insists until this day that that game and our reaction got her into Georgia football.
My father-in-law, who was notorious for talkinG smack to me about Georgia just to get under my skin and not even a football fan, was into this one. I walked outside on the deck after the Stephens TD. “That’s it”, I said. “It’s over.” Joseph (my father-in-law), told me it wasn’t. I don’t know to this day if he actually believed that or was just trying to make me feel better. He said there was enough time. He said we could still come back. I didn’t believe him. But I watched as David Greene went into 2 minute mode (with less than a minute left) and absolutely carve apart the Vols defense. It was Joe Montana-esque. And within what seemed seconds, there we were. In the red zone. 10 yard line. Greene takes the ball, looks in the middle of the end zone, and finds Verron Haynes.
I (along with everyone else in that room) lost my mind.
I jumped on my wife’s back and about broke her. That was it. The play where Larry Munson said those famous words……”We just stepped on their face with a hob nail boot and broke their noses……we just CRUSHED their faces.” We sure did Larry. Along with the hopes and joy of thousands of screaming Tennessee fans, Phil Fulmer’s entire game plan, and maybe an item or 2 in that house where we watched. Along with my wife’s back. Sorry Honey. I couldn’t help myself. Blame David Greene, blame Verron Haynes and blame Larry Munson.