Georgia football: Top five matchups against Tennessee

#1 – 2001 — Georgia 26 — No. 6 Tennessee 24

You may never read another top game list between these two teams written by a Georgia fan that has a game at No. 1 other than this one. The HobNail Boot game is the stuff of legends and will forever give me chills when I watch it.

Georgia entered the season with a new head coach in Mark Richt. Tennessee still had longtime coach Phillip Fulmer at the helm.

Tennessee was still very much a part of the top of the SEC East and Georgia was trying to get there. This game would be one of the turning points in the rivalry and in Georgia’s resurgence.

The Dawgs entered the game 2-1 with the only blemish a 14-9 loss at the hands of South Carolina. Tennessee came in undefeated and fresh off of a convincing win against LSU.

Georgia had a 1st year head coach and a freshman quarterback (David Greene). Tennessee had a championship coach, Travis Stephens, Donte Staworth, Jason Witten, and Albert Haynesworrh. And the game was in Tennessee.

The Vols jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a 7 yard touchdown pass from Casey Clausen to Kelley Washington. Billy Bennett added a field goal for Georgia before Clausen threw for another score and the Vols would jump out to a 14-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter would belong to the Dawgs as Damien Gary would put the first touchdown up on the board with a 72 yard punt return. Greene would then throw his first touchdown of the game to T.D. Bryant to give the Dawgs a 17-14 advantage. A Tennessee FG would close out the scoring for the first half and both teams went to the locker room with 17.

Neither defense would budge in the third quarter and the scoring in the second half didn’t start until there was 6 minutes remaining in the game. Bennett nailed a 31 yard field goal to give Georgia a 20-17 lead. And that’s how it would remain until the final minute.

That’s when the whole game would spin on it’s head. First Clausen would hit Stephens for a 62 yard touchdown strike with :57 seconds remaining. That would give Tennessee a 24-20 lead and Neyland Stadium was ready to crash down.

But that Georgia freshman quarterback was getting ready to become a LEGEND in Bulldog Football History. Georgia took possession on their own 35 yard line and we got to see what David Greene was made of.

With three completed passes, Georgia found itself on the Tennessee 6 yard line with :10 seconds remaining in the game. That’s when Mark Richt would call “P-44 Haynes”, which would be a play action fake by Greene with fullback Verron Haynes splitting the o-line and turning around in the end zone. Coach Richt told Greene, “If it’s quarters coverage, it’ll be there.”

It was there! Greene found a wide open Haynes in the end zone and the Dawgs had one of the biggest wins in their recent history and certainly a groundbreaking win for Coach Richt and Greene. Georgia fans know the call now and still revere when it is played.

“We just stepped on their face with a hobnail boot and broke their nose! We just crushed their face!” ~ Larry Munson

Yet again Georgia found a way to win and it resulted in one of the greatest Munson calls of all time. It welcomed Mark Richt to Georgia and it was his first true signature win. A sweet win at that.

Georgia and Tennessee have had quite a few classic matchups in the last 19 years and these are our top five favorite showdowns. Even though we included the terrible loss in 2016, it was still a pretty epic game.

What are your favorite matchups? Let us know!