October 11, 2004

Tennessee/Georgia Commentary

What a difference a week makes.

A week earlier, the Georgia Bulldogs looked like world-beaters, thrashing LSU 45-16 at home. In Knoxville, the Tennessee Volunteers looked like Vanderbilt in a 34-10 home loss to Auburn.

Most pundits figured that this week would be another cake-walk for the Georgia Bulldogs. In fact, Kirk Herbstreit went on ESPN's The Dan Patrick Show last week and stated that Georgia would "destroy Tennessee" between the hedges.

About the only people who believed Tennessee could win were the faithful Vol fans and the Volunteers.

Guess there's a reason they play the game, huh?

The Volunteers did the seemingly unthinkable Saturday afternoon--went between the hedges and handed the Bulldogs their first home loss since 2001. The win snapped the Bulldogs' four game winning streak against the Vols and gave UT the inside track on the SEC Eastern division title.

Georgia is now left to regroup and try to bounce back with big games against Auburn and Florida left on the schedule.

Tennessee has an easier road to the SEC Championship, though big games against Alabama and a day-before-Halloween road trip to Columbia to face Lou Holtz and the South Carolina Gamecocks looms large as well. And let's not even consider overlooking Ole Miss, who upset the Gamecocks Saturday afternoon.

In a lot of ways, this game was an 90's throwback of the Tennessee/Georgia rivallary. In the 90's the Vols would play so-so, doing enough to win some early games but losing a big, early SEC contest (usually to Florida). But suddenly, against Georgia, the Vols would play a complete game against the Bulldogs, stealing any momentum the Bulldogs had from early in the season and winning the game. It happened again on Saturday, for the first time in five years.

The Vols defense played bend but don't break and seized momentum. But let's give some credit to Georgia coach Marc Richt for helping the Vols take momentum. With just over three minutes left in the third quarter, Richt tried to give Georgia some momentum by going for a fake-punt from his own 39-yard line. The Vols shut down the attempt and took over on downs, allowing Eric Ainge to drive the team down for the winning touchdown of the contest.

But the end of the game brought flashbacks of 2001 in Neyland Stadium to this Volunteer fan. Seeing Georgia drive down the field as time rolled off the clock and the Vols up by less than a touchdown was a scary proposition. Luckily, David Greene's final pass with one second left in the game was batted down, preserving the Vols win.

Not that Greene should have had that second. In the final drive, Georgia enjoyed some home cooking by the officials. Fred Gibson was clearly in bounds when tackled with one second left on the clock. Also, earlier in the drive, officials measured for a first down on a critical third down. Georgia, who was out of time outs, was clearly a good yard and a half from a first down, but the officials measures anyway, effectively giving the Bulldogs a time out to regroup instead of having to go hurry up and draining more time off the clock.

But, it ended up not mattering. The Volunteers found the way to win and dealt the Bulldogs a huge blow in their chase of a national title.

One major concern for Tennessee has to be the place kicking of James Wilhoit. I won't argue that from 50 plus yards he's not great. But his mid-long range shots aren't making it. I have to wonder if miss three out of five won't begin to affect his confidence as the season goes along. Hopefully, the Vols can work on this in practice this week and Wilhoit will get a chance to rebuild his confidence in the next couple of games.

Posted by Michael Hickerson

 

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Comments & Trackbacks

1. Tiny Jones says:

   posted on October 16, 2004 02:59 PM — link

   Go VOLS!..Tennessee played a great game against Georgia and hopefully we can win out and meet Auburn again in Atlanta...Go VOLS!

2. STef says:

   posted on October 24, 2004 05:29 PM — link

   David Greene is an awesome quarterback!!! Me and my friend Hope are his BIGGEST fans!!! I LOVE YOU DAVID YOU ARE AWESOME I dont care what anyone says!!!
   LOVE *Your biggest fan*,
   STEf
   p.s. GO DAWGS!! Kick AUBURN'S Butt!