Week after week, the 2002 SEC Championship season was every bit of one hurdle after another.
After an open cluster of games that had a pair of gritty wins at South Carolina and Alabama, Georgia’s pursuit of an SEC East title was coming into focus, but more heavy lifting had to be done.
That’s when on Oct. 12, one week after the “man enough” win at Alabama, Tennessee came to town.
Like many games in 2002, this win was far from easy. But at the end of the day, an 18-13 win further cemented Georgia above the hierarchy of the Volunteers in the SEC East, something that was not the case when Mark Richt was hired in December 2000.
One of the expectations for Richt was not just to beat Tennessee once, but to do so consistently.
Coming into that afternoon, Georgia’s wins were against Tennessee in recent years were against a passing-offense challenged team in 2000 and the Hobnail Boot game in 2001.
Georgia had to prove that it could not just beat UT Knoxville, but do so consistently.
That’s exactly what the Dawgs did, getting off the high of the previous week’s win at Alabama to get the win.
This one was a classic Brian VanGorder special.
Tennessee rotated quarterbacks CJ Leak and James Banks, but it didn’t rattle Georgia’s defensive charges that much as if held the Vols scoreless through three quarters.
As a result, Georgia didn’t need much offense, and moving up and down the field was hardly easy against a Tennessee defense that had plenty of talent. An early safety plus two Billy Bennett field goals made it 8-0 by the half, and a third Bennett field goal combined with Reggie Brown hauling in an 11-yarder from David Greene put the Dawgs in good shape going to the fourth quarter, ahead 18-0.
Tennessee finally countered, scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns to trail 18-13 with 3:21 to go. All of a sudden, Georgia needed just enough offense to hold on.
The Dawgs managed just 93 yards on the ground, but perhaps the most important came from Tony Milton. Mostly a back used to provide depth that year behind Musa Smith, Milton helped close the game out, taking fourth-down snap at the Tennesssee 25 yards to keep possession on a power sweep – or as Larry Munson said, “we put the whole school out there in front of him!”
Go Dawgs!