Nearly 50 years after Herschel Walker's debut, the Georgia-Tennessee rivalry still endures

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It’s been 45 years since Herschel Walker was introduced to the college football world.

It was right here on Rocky Top in the 1980 season opener where Walker and Georgia launched an improbable journey to an unbeaten season and the national championship, thrusting Walker into almost mythical status.

It’s debatable what people remember most from that September night (the game wasn’t even on television). Was it Walker bulldozing his way over Tennessee safety Bill Bates on his way to his first career touchdown or the way legendary Georgia broadcaster Larry Munson described that run, a call that generations of Georgia fans have memorized verbatim.

“He drove right over orange shirts, just driving and running with those big thighs. My God, a freshman!”

Walker didn’t even start the game and hadn’t been overly impressive during preseason camp, despite a recruitment that brought coaches from all over the country to his home in Wrightsville, Georgia. But with the Bulldogs trailing 15-2 at the half, coach Vince Dooley decided to start Walker in the second half, and the rest – as they say – is history.

That matchup was before Georgia and Tennessee began playing every year starting in 1992 when the SEC expanded and split into two divisions. The game on Saturday in Knoxville will mark the 34^th straight year that the Bulldogs and Vols have met, but that streak is likely coming to an end with the SEC moving to nine league games in 2026. Each team will take on three permanent opponents and six rotating opponents, and sources have told On3 that Georgia and Tennessee aren’t expected to be permanent foes. So at some point, a hiatus is coming.

This will be the fourth straight year that Georgia and Tennessee have met as nationally ranked opponents, and the Vols are trying to end an eight-game losing streak in the series. Here’s a look back at some of the more memorable games and moments since this became an annual rivalry in 1992:

2022: The game was the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in Sanford Stadium history, but there was a catch. Even though Georgia was No. 1 in the AP poll, Tennessee came in at No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, and it was obvious Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs had all the motivation they needed on their way to a second straight national championship. The game was never close, and Georgia won 27-13. Tennessee entered the game with the nation’s top scoring offense, averaging 49.4 points per game, but was limited to 289 yards on 75 plays and converted just 2-of-14 third-down attempts. The Vols’ only touchdown came with 4:15 to play with Georgia leading 27-6.

2016: It’s the only time Smart has lost to Tennessee as a head coach, and the game produced one of the wildest endings in the series. Josh Dobbs connected with a leaping Jauan Jennings in the end zone on a 43-yard Hail Mary on the final play of the game, giving the Vols a stunning 34-31 victory. Seconds earlier, it looked like Georgia had won it with its own Hail Mary. Jacob Eason found Riley Ridley down the left sideline for a 47-yard touchdown with 10 seconds to play. And let’s not forget Derek Barnett’s sack of Eason in the zone and forced fumble that was recovered by Corey Vereen with less than three minutes to play, giving Tennessee its first lead of the game at 28-24 and setting up the back-to-back Hail Marys. It was Tennessee’s second straight win over Georgia under Butch Jones, the only two wins the Vols have in the series over the past 15 years.

2009: To say the least, Lane Kiffin’s only season at Tennessee was entertaining, and the Vols took on their coach’s bite-back mentality with big wins over Georgia and South Carolina and close losses to Alabama and Florida. Tennessee was dominant in its 45-19 victory over Georgia at home, the Vols’ third over the Bulldogs in the previous four outings. It’s what Kiffin said after the game that most people remember. “We’re never going to lose to this team again as long as I’m here,” Kiffin told his team. As it turns out, he was right. He left for the USC job in January.

2001: In Mark Richt’s first season as coach, Georgia rallied to upset No. 6 Tennessee 26-24 at Neyland Stadium in what will forever be known as the “Hobnail Boot” game. David Greene hit fullback Verron Haynes with a game-winning 6-yard touchdown pass with five seconds remaining. Munson, who made a career of delivering famous calls, blurted out one for the ages after Haynes scored: “We just stepped on their face with a hobnail boot and broke their nose! We just crushed their face!” It was Georgia’s first win in Knoxville since Walker’s debut in 1980, and left Tennessee fans stunned after Travis Stephens had just taken a screen pass 62 yards for a touchdown with 44 seconds to play to seemingly win it for the Vols.

2000: It was the first and only time that Georgia fans have stormed the field and torn down the goal posts at Sanford Stadium. Not only that, but they damaged the famed hedges following a 21-10 win over Tennessee, ending the Vols’ nine-game winning streak in the series. Students and fans were already starting to flood the field into the end zone in the final minutes, and by the time Tim Wansley intercepted a Tennessee pass with 1:13 to play, there were students hanging onto one of the goalposts. Coach Jim Donnan and Georgia players were pleading with fans to get off the field, and officials were able to keep them back long enough to finish the game. But as the final seconds ticked down of Georgia’s first win over Tennessee since the 1980s, bedlam ensued.

1997: Jamal Lewis rushed for 232 yards as a freshman in Tennessee’s 38-13 rout of Georgia at Neyland Stadium. At least twice in that game, the 230-pound Lewis ran through tackle attempts by Smart, then a junior safety for the Bulldogs. When it was over, Donnan cursed Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer at midfield after Peyton Manning threw a late touchdown pass inside two minutes with the Vols leading 31-13. Fulmer’s middle daughter, Brittany, was at his side. Donnan, upset over Fulmer running up the score, said his comments were whispered into Fulmer’s ear and not meant for anybody else. “I don’t regret what I said. I regret that he felt like he had to tell everybody in the state what I said,” Donnan quipped the next year. That exchange wasn’t the only drama following the game. That next week, a story just happened to appear in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailing Lewis’ shoplifting charge from months earlier when he was still in high school in Atlanta. Lewis was one of the top running back prospects in the country, but felt like he was “Plan B” behind Jasper Sanks for Georgia. And ironically, it was Donnan and Georgia who opened the door for Tennessee to play in its first ever SEC championship game (and win the title) when the Bulldogs upset Florida 37-17 later in the season. The Vols had previously lost to the Gators, who would have held the head-to-head tiebreaker had they not lost to the Bulldogs.

1992: Heath Shuler was making his first career road start at quarterback for Tennessee in the first season of divisional play in the SEC. Georgia was a heavy favorite and loaded on offense, but Shuler rallied the Vols for a 34-31 victory, including a game-winning 80-yard touchdown drive after the second of two fourth-quarter touchdown runs by Georgia All-America running back Garrison Hearst. Shuler came through with a clutch 22-yard throw to Ronald Davis on fourth-and-14 on that final drive and scored the game-winner himself on a 3-yard run. It was especially gut-wrenching for the Bulldogs, who went up and down the field to the tune of 569 total yards, but turned it over six times.