Georgia Delivers Epic and Historical Beat Down of Vols in Neyland

Tennessee not only had to replace Barnett, whose 33 sacks in three seasons at Tennessee broke Reggie White’s school record.

The Bulldogs shut the Vols out 41-0, the first time Tennessee has been held scoreless at home since 1994.

From the first play, there was little doubt that Georgia would beat Tennessee on Saturday. If the Bulldogs aren’t disciplined and are caught looking ahead, Tennessee could pull off the upset.

“He knew this was his last shot”, head coach Kirby Smart said.

“I think we did good against Mississippi State in pass protection, but we can do better, a lot better”, Georgia center Lamont Gaillard said.

The visiting Bulldogs got revenge for last season’s “Hail Mary” loss with a dominating performance. It was a historic moment as it marked the first time that an African-American played for one SEC team against another team from the conference.

Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va., is one of the toughest places to play in college football when it’s rocking. The two QBs combined to go 11-23 for 80 yards and throw two picks against the Bulldogs. Nick Chubb ran for 109 yards for Georgia, which totaled 294 yards on the ground. Each of the last two seasons, a Tennessee defensive player has chased someone down at the end of a 70-plus-yard run to turn a likely touchdown into a touchback. He ran for 20 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries. “Jacob Eason has to focus on getting healthy, getting 100 percent”. The rout was so drastic, Georgia even used a back-up kicker when David Marvin scored the last three points with a 19-yard field goal. Quinten Dormady was intercepted on the first play of the game. Offensively, the Bulldogs rushed for almost 300 yards with four total touchdowns.

Fromm won another big start on the road, and he made plays with his legs in the second quarter.

That it was, and nothing screamed of the mess that Jones, his team, the fans and first-year Tennessee athletic director John Currie find themselves in moving forward than the swift exodus of the majority of Neyland’s 102,455 fans as the fourth quarter began. Some of it many point out is that the players who are 4-5 star studs normally believe they are given the starting spots at Georgia under Richt and never played like their job was ever in jeopardy.

But instead of letting the call get into his head, McGhee came right back out and finished the drive, knocking down Dormady passes on first and third downs and forcing a Tennessee punt. If Georgia can limit the production of these two – and that means wrapping up the slippery Kelly – Tennessee will have trouble finding the end zone. On Saturday he will play at Neyland Stadium for the last time.

The only way Tennessee (3-2, 0-2) could have beaten Georgia on a sun-splashed afternoon was for Peyton Manning, who attended the game as part of College Football Hall of Fame, had come out of retirement.

Amusing enough, I ended up a going a little old school this week, landing on teams which pride themselves on a solid ground attack and play sound defense. “You forget about that play and go onto the next one”.