Georgia Football: The top 21 moments that made 2021 epic

17. James Cook’s performance in Knoxville against the Tennessee Volunteers

While we’ve focused on individual plays, a couple of slides include a player’s entire performance because they were so memorable that choosing one of their plays in a specific game wouldn’t be fair to them.

Coming in at No. 17 is James Cooks’ performance against Tennessee and his impact on the game — it was memorable.

He helped the Dawgs go 10-0 for the first time since 1982 and 8-0 in SEC history. Cook left Knoxville with 10 carries for 104 yards and two scores, along with three catches for 43 yards and one touchdown.

Tennessee had no answer for Cook, and he enforced his will on them. Without Cook, it could have been a much longer night for the Dawgs.

One of his biggest moments in this game was a 39-yard touchdown run to start and tie the Vols 7-7. He also caught a 23-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-10.

Cook outran his defender and caught the perfectly thrown pass from Bennett, showing just how versatile he is as a running back.

The Dawgs’ offense wasn’t doing much else between him and starting quarterback Stetson Bennett.

Tennessee came ready to hurt the Dawgs’ feelings, but instead, Georiga earned a 24-point victory and finished undefeated in SEC play since the league made the East and West divisions.

Cook needed a big game like this for his confidence and to prove that his ceiling is much higher than anyone thinks it is.

He helped the Dawgs, and a lot of people remember this performance as the one where people finally started putting respect on his name.