UGA vs. Tennessee History

The Georgia-Tennessee rivalry dates all the way back to 1899, when the Vols beat the Dawgs by the odd score of 5-0, followed by a UGA 5-0 victory. After that, even stranger, the two teams tied 0-0 to make the series record 1-1-1. Georgia took the next five in a row, outscoring Tennessee 95-9 during that span which stretched from 1909 to 1924, due to a twelve year break from 1910-1922. The Vols took all 3 games played from 1925-1937, outscoring UGA 90-7. 1968 was the first time the teams played with one of them ranked, with Tennessee at #9. They tied 17-17 in that matchup. The following meeting in 1969 was the first time both teams came into the game ranked, when #3 Tennessee beat #11 Georgia 17-3. In 1973, unranked Georgia upset #11 Tennessee after a 35-31 comeback win. In 1980, Herschel Walker happened. That was his freshman season when he famously ran right over Tennessee's Bill Bates as 16th ranked UGA hung on to beat the Vols 16-15, as Georgia went on to win the national title that season. The Dawgs also took the next two after that before the Tennessee dynasty started. The Vols won all 9 meetings between 1989 and 1999, and were ranked in all 9 matchups, being in the top ten in 7 of the 9. In 1998 #4 Tennesssee beat the seventh ranked Dawgs by a score of 22-3, before the Vols eventually claimed the national title that year. UGA started gaining ground in the series in 2000, going 11-4 against the Volunteers since then, outscoring them 420-372. But in 2001, UGA had the well-known win over #6 Tennessee as the dawgs pulled off the 26-24 upset, with Larry Munson famously saying, "We just stepped on their face with a hobnail boot and broke their nose!" The Bulldogs have been ranked in 8 out of the 15 matchups since 2000, being in the top ten for 6 of those occasions. The only overtime occurance in the rivalry happened in 2013, as UGA beat the Vols 34-31 in Knoxville. With a win this Saturday, Georgia will take the series lead for the first time since 1989. Georgia is 4-1 and ranked #19, and Tennessee sits at 2-3 coming into this game.

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