Georgia fans (I'm sure) are ready to get the nasty, soggy taste out of their mouths that came along with the Alabama game. Surely a victory would ease the pain, right?
Getting a win a Rocky Top won't be easy this week, but if there's any team that might be more down-trodden than the Bulldogs, it would almost certainly be the Volunteers.
They've had a 13-point lead in every single game they've played, and somehow came out 2-3 on the other side.
But there's other fun stats to explore.
The last time...
1) These teams met:
Last year's game in Athens was a game that was single-handedly dominated by Georgia RB Todd Gurley, who cranked out 208 rushing yards on 28 carries.
The Bulldogs won 35-32 in game they trailed 10-0 in the first quarter, but never trailed again after taking a 14-10 lead midway through the second period.
Tennessee brought their A-game on offense, though, putting up 401 total yards (119 rushing from RB Jaylen Hurd).
It took an onside kick recovery and a late fourth-down conversion from Gurley for Georgia to finally seal the narrow victory.
2) Georgia won three straight trips to Neyland Stadium:
This would actually be the second time in the Mark Richt era that the Bulldogs won back-to-back-to-back trips to Knoxville, should Georgia come out victorious on Saturday.
The first three trips Richt took to Neyland were wins: 26-24 (Hobnail Boot) in 2001, 41-14 in 2003 and 27-14 in 2005.
Tennessee won the next two Knoxville games in '07 and '09 before the Bulldogs started their current five-game winning streak in the series in 2010, which included road wins in '11 and '13.
The closest Georgia came before the Richt era to winning three straight in Knoxville was a 2-0-1 stretch from 1968-1980.
3) Tennessee trailed the overall series:
As it stands, the UGA-UT series is tied 21-21-2, so a Vol win would keep them from trailing the series for the first time since 1993.
Tennessee beat Georgia that year 38-6 (in the third of nine straight victories in the series) to take the lead 11-10-2.
The Vols led by as many as seven games before the Bulldogs started chipping away at the turn of the century, with Richt posting a 10-4 record over his neighbors to the north thus far.
Georgia hasn't led the series since 1992, when a 34-31 Tennessee victory evened the series at 10-10-2.
4) Georgia won six in a row over Tennessee:
This would be the first time since ... ever!
The Bulldogs have never won six straight over the Vols across the series' 44 game history. Their longest streak is five games (twice), from 1909-1924 and the current streak from 2010-2014.
Georgia would join Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss, Sewanee and Vanderbilt as the only teams in Volunteer history to win six (or more) straight over Big Orange.
5) Tennessee beat a ranked opponent:
In 2013, Butch Jones notched what is (thus far) his only "signature" win, when his Volunteers took down No. 11 (and eventual 11-game winner) South Carolina in Neyland Stadium 23-21 (two weeks after suffering their agonizing 34-31 loss to then-No. 6 Georgia).
Since then, Jones and Co. are 0-9 against ranked opponents (0-4 at home).
For comparison, Jones is 1-12 against ranked opponents as head coach in Knoxville (31 games). Dereky Dooley was 0-13 for his entire 37-game tenure, and Lane Kiffin was 1-3 in his one-year stint.
6) Georgia went undefeated against the SEC East:
Since the conference split into divisions back in 1991, the Bulldogs have never swept the SEC East.
There have been plenty of one-loss years (most recently 2012), but no sweeps.
That hope remains alive, but Georgia still must play Tennessee, Missouri, Florida and Kentucky if they plan on running the East Table to Atlanta.
7) Tennessee went an entire season without playing an overtime game:
This streak has already been slotted into the "still alive" category for 2015, since the Volunteers have already posted one overtime contest (their loss to Oklahoma).
The last year they didn't play a game beyond regulation was all the way back in 2006.
Since then, they've played an extra frame at least once every single season, maxing out at four OT's against Kentucky in 2007 and Missouri in 2012.
BONUS: What about Georgia?
The Bulldogs have played an overtime game each of the previous two seasons, which, incidentally, started with their 34-31 win in Knoxville in 2013.
They went on to play two overtime games against Georgia Tech, a 41-34 win in 2013 and a 30-24 loss in 2014.
Georgia has not gone to overtime so far this year (and hasn't really been close, since every game has been a blowout).
8) Georgia lost to Alabama and Tennessee in the same season:
The Bulldogs haven't lost to the Crimson Tide and Volunteers in the same season since 1995, when they narrowly lost to Tennessee 30-27 and got smacked by Alabama 31-0 (also the last time the Bulldogs were ever shutout).
Since then, there have been a total of five seasons (not including 2015) where Georgia has played both schools.
In 2002 and 2003, the Bulldogs swept them both. In 2007, Georgia beat the Crimson Tide, but lost to the Volunteers, and in 2008 and 2012, the Bulldogs beat Tennessee and lost to Bama (in the SEC Championship in '12).
9) Tennessee had a winless October:
This certainly wouldn't be a bet I'd make, but I'll play around with a hypothetical situation, since I also wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility.
The Volunteers have four October games: Arkansas (lost 24-20), Georgia at home, and Alabama and Kentucky on the road.
Right now the Bulldogs are a 3-point favorite over Big Orange. One would think Alabama will be a substantially heavier favorite (especially in Tuscaloosa), and don't count out the Wildcats this year. They've already nipped Missouri and South Carolina, and gave Florida as good a game as anybody. (As good as Tennessee did, anyway.)
Back to point. A winless October would be the Vols' first since 1991, when they (oddly enough) went 0-2 in month No. 10. Tennessee lost a pair of road games: 35-18 to Florida and 25-24 to Alabama.
And in case you're wondering, the last time Tennessee went winless across four or more games in October was 1909, when they posted an 0-4-1 record. Those were the first five games of the year, and the Vols didn't score a single point in any one of them. In fact, they went scoreless until their 11-0 win over Transylvania College to bring their record to 1-6-2 for the year.
10) The loser of Georgia-Tennessee went on to win the SEC East:
The last time the loser of this game represented the East in the Georgia Dome was in 2001, when Tennessee—a 26-24 Hobnail Boot loser to Georgia—took on LSU for the title.
The Bayou Bengals took down the Vols (10-1, 7-1) with a dominant fourth quarter, 31-20. It cost Tennessee a chance to play Miami for the BCS Championship.
Since then, Georgia has won the East five times (2002, 2003, 2005, 2011 and 2012), all of which included wins over the Volunteers.
Similarly, Tennessee has won the East twice more (2004 and 2007), with wins over the Bulldogs included both times.
***
That's all we've got for this week. I can't even begin to predict what this game's going to be like.
Will the Vols blow another double-digit lead? Will Georgia feel the letdown from last week's blowout to Alabama?
I'm guessing somewhere in the middle, but I wouldn't be surprised if this game came down to turnovers.
Someone's gotta lose, right?
