Tennessee football: 10 heartbreaking game-winning TD drives Vols allowed

4. Oct. 6, 2001

Georgia Bulldogs at No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers

Final score: Georgia wins 26-24

Similar to the 2006 loss to the LSU Tigers, this drive and this game ended up having no bearing on the season. In fact, it would take another heartbreaking loss, the most heartbreaking loss in history, ironically to LSU, later in the year to wreck the 2001 Tennessee football team.

But before that, Georgia came close to doing it. Heading into the game, UT was 3-0 and had found Kelley Washington as a top receiver with Donte Stallworth out the week before, in another game against LSU that was a win.

Georgia, meanwhile, was rebuilding under first-year head coach Mark Richt and freshman quarterback David Greene. They were 3-1 with a loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks. As heavy underdogs, they fell behind early 14-3. But the Dawgs fought back and made it 20-17 late. That’s when the drama began.

The Vols appeared to have won off a game winning drive with less than a minute to go. Casey Clausen hit Travis Stephens on a short screen pass in a brilliant call by Randy Sanders, and Stephens took it over 60 yards to the house. It seemed the game was over, and the Vols would hold on for a 24-20 win.

However, Phillip Fulmer inexplicably called for a squib kickoff following the touchdown. Then John Chavis went to a prevent defense. As a result, Greene took advantage from his own 41-yard line with 40 seconds and one timeout. He hit Damien Gary for a 12-yard pass. Then he hit Randy McMicheal for an impossible 27-yard completion over the middle through two Vols defenders.

That was the key completion to give UGA live with 21 seconds to go, but then he hit McMichael again to get the ball to the Vols’ 6-yard line. That’s when what’s known as the hobnail boot play happened. Richt called a brilliant play where fullback Verron Haynes snuck out of the backfield and caught the game-winning touchdown with six seconds to go to give the Dawgs a 26-24 lead.

At that point, the late Larry Munson, UGA’s radio broadcaster, screamed that Georgia had just stepped on Tennessee football’s face with a hobnail boot. It became a heartbreaker for Rocky Top, and that drive alone established Greene and Richt, which would allow Georgia to recruit top-notch talent that offseason and eventually overtake the Vols in the SEC East upper-echelon.