43-yard Hail Mary touchdown reception
No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers beat No. 25 Georgia Bulldogs 34-31
Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016; Sanford Stadium; Athens, Ga.
From one senior wideout’s Hail Mary grab to another, nobody is going to debate this play for Jauan Jennings or its ranking atop this list. Jennings has been Tennessee football’s best playmaker all season long. Three years ago, this play only gave you a preview of what would come.
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As a sophomore who was still a converted quarterback, Jennings showed his value the week before with the go-ahead touchdown grab against the Florida Gators, burning Teez Tabor in the process. That would have been his most memorable moment had this play against the Georgia Bulldogs not happened.
We mentioned the Riley Lovingood play and the strip-sack touchdown. Well, the Vols couldn’t hold onto that lead. They allowed a Hail Mary touchdown pass that put UGA up 31-28 with 10 seconds left. Thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a solid return by Evan Berry, though, the Vols had a chance at a Hail Mary.
The team had been feeling magic all year at that point, so Joshua Dobbs heaved a pass into the end zone. Jennings just jumped up over everybody else and caught it, landing on his back in the end zone to secure the win. At the time, UT moved to 5-0 on the season and into the top 10. It was the Vols’ highest point in the decade, just before the Butch Jones era began to unravel.
Meanwhile, Jennings would go from that to a season-ending injury his junior year to an eventual dismissal by a lame-duck coaching staff and then reinstatement by Jeremy Pruitt and then needing a year to get back into shape before having this legendary season. But his legacy with Tennessee football still goes back to this one unforgettable play.