Not the stakes need to be raised with a #1 vs #1 matchup, but if the Vols win this week and finish out the regular season undefeated, they will move up this list to fourth before even the conference championship game.
I was at both games too. 2004 we were getting our asses handed to us and scored just before the half. Then we opened a can on kick ass the rest of the game. That blocked punt ended up landing in the corner of the end zone where I was sitting. Great picture of the ball on Sports Illustrated the next week. I will never forget 2016. When UGA scored the late TD to take the lead it felt like the Stadium jumped a few feet into the air. Electricity was in the air. Then the Hail Mary crushed their hearts. Glorious.
That was 2006 (and honestly I thought we played fine in the first half but all the big plays went against us—we just needed a break and the floodgates opened). 2004 was differently great.
I don’t even know if I can come up with a game from the 90s that felt like this. Where were underdogs we figured if we won, we were home free the rest of the season? Maybe one of those years that us and Florida were just so far ahead of everyone else that we just needed that one, even though it was in September? 1997? 2001 Florida had a strong whiff of this feeling, but not being undefeated put a damper on it.
06, Tennessee came back on them and won 51 to 34 or 37. UGA laid down in the 2nd half. The blocked punt was on the cover of sports illustrated
51-33. Think it was 27-24 after three and we outscored them 27-9 in the fourth. Six of their nine were a kickoff return for TD.
What a game to go to—one of the best fourth quarters I have ever seen us play. Sadly, my only football road games have been Gameday at Williams-Bryce and Kiffin’s OT win in Lexington—nothing like that one.
Was there in 2012 and 2014. Everyone from the pot bellied grown men literally barking at you the second you stepped out of the car to Athens PD making KPD seem reasonable in comparison made Athens insufferable. Just awful people to spend a weekend with. Plus Sanford itself is the most overrated "big time SEC program" football stadium experience. It's not that loud, the acoustics suck, and the sightlines you experience watching a game in that stadium are very awkward. You definitely don't get the feeling you are in the modern version of the Roman Coliseum like you do at Neyland. The only kudos I will give Athens is that if you are an 18-22 year old college kid looking to have fun, their bar scene is impressive. A shit ton more establishments there to get your booze on compared to a lot of SEC schools. But that's about it.
I have never been there, but seeing TV games in the Swamp or Death Valley seem intimidating. TV games in Athens just look like a pleasant afternoon on Jefferson Pilot. No idea how it is in person but there just isn’t any intensity coming through.
It's not intimidating at all. "Cute" would be the word I'd use to summarize it. Of course I went in 2012 and 2014 and had to endure watching Dooley and Butch coached teams slowly engineer a defeat, so our "pleasure" was pretty limited with our gameday experience there both times. Will always be fond of the memories of us showing our big orange ass to UGA fans as payback for our shit treatment in Athens the years prior when we beat them in Knoxville in 2015. After the game I was with a group of buds celebrating at Lake Plaza. The entire apartment complex was out on the balconies talking shit and mockingly encouraging UGA fans to bark for us like good [itch bay]es should as they walked by in defeat. A couple drunken no-life UGA grown men didn't enjoy being ridiculed by a bunch of UT college students and angrily threatened to come upstairs to fight us, which of course we gleefully welcomed their challenge by telling them exactly what Unit# we were at, before being brisked away by their embarrassed wives. Good times.
I can’t tell if our defense is actually underrated, with a great Bryce Young game and a bunch of Florida fourth down conversions being misleading, or if it really is a crippling weakness. The LSU and Kentucky games are genuinely encouraging.
Stetson Bennett IV : 9 tds 3 INTs 7 sacks Unless he almost doubles his TD output in one game, UGA is in for a long day
