Friday March 29th, 2024 7:28AM

The Last Time: Georgia at Tennessee

The day is nearly here, boys and girls.

The day to atone for the sins of yester-year.

A trip to Knoxville.

Too much orange.

Perhaps a drink or two.

Georgia and Tennessee will meet on the banks of the Tennessee River, inside of Mark Richt Neyland Stadium for an SEC East showdown that ... well, who knows if it'll have any implications on the SEC Championship Game.

Let's talk some stats first.

The last time...

1) These teams met:

I don't want to talk about it.

2) Georgia lost a true road game:

The Bulldogs have actually gone more than a full year without losing a true road game.

On Sept. 24, 2016 Georgia got shellacked by a coach and his prostitutes Ole Miss 45-17 in Oxford.

Since then, the Dawgs are actually 3-0 on the road, owning wins over South Carolina (first win in Columbia since 2008), Kentucky and Notre Dame.

Neutral sites and home games?

Not nearly as peachy.

But this isn't one of those.

3) Tennessee beat a Top 10 team:

Georgia comes into this game ranked No. 7 in the nation. I'm of the belief that it's still too early to know exactly where a team should be ranked.

But, here we are.

A win Saturday would be the Vols' first win over a Top 10 team since a 2006 win over ... No. 9 Georgia.

Phil Fulmer's pumpkin spicesketeers came to Athens and left with a 51-33 victory.

Hard to believe Willie Martinez remained the defensive coordinator for another three full seasons after that, but I digress.

Since then, Tennessee is 0-27 against the Top 10, a streak that now spans four head coaches.

And who knows if it won't stretch to five.

4) A true freshman quarterback beat Tennessee in Knoxville:

For this we need only return to 2016, when some kid named Jalen Hurts led Alabama to a 49-10 thrashing of Tennessee Between the Checkers.

Jake Fromm will look to make it two in a row, with all indications pointing to him getting the start on Saturday.

No other true freshman has started at quarterback against the Vols in Knoxville since then.

5) Georgia scored 30 points in three consecutive games:

The Bulldogs have scored 30+ in back-to-back games, thanks to a 42-14 win over Samford and last week's 31-3 pummeling of Mississippi State.

Scoring 30 in Neyland won't be easy, but if it happens, it would mark the first time since 2015 that the Dawgs accomplished that feat.

Greyson Lambert, bless his soul, and Brian Schottenheimer, bless his soul times infinity, led Georgia's offense to four straight 30-spots to open the 2015 season, all wins.

Then Alabama came to town to ruin all the fun.

Kirby Smart's team has never scored 30 points in three straight games.

(Mike Bobo's last offense in Athens only scored under 30 points twice across 13 games. I miss him.)

6) The Georgia-Tennessee game was decided by more than one possession:

It's been six consecutive years of one-possession games in this rivalry, dating back to the Aaron Murray era.

Speaking of Murray (What a segue, I know.) he was the quarterback in the last not-one possession game in this series, his redshirt-freshman season of 2010.

No. 11 led the Dawgs to a 41-14 thrashing in Athens. Since then the margin of victory for the winning team has been: 8, 7, 3 (OT), 3, 7 and 3.

All I'm saying is: Don't be surprised if it's close.

7) A Georgia tight end not named Isaac Nauta scored a touchdown:

The last time a Bulldog tight end (other than Nauta) found the end zone was the very first game of the 2015 season, when Jeb Blazevich, then a sophomore, caught a touchdown pass from Greyson Lambert.

Since then, only Nauta has found pay dirt, and he's found it four times, including last week against Mississippi State.

And he's only been here since 2016.

8) Tennessee had a game it didn't lead or trail throughout:

If Georgia gets a lead, it stands to reason it will hold it.

Or if the Vols get a lead, it also stands to reason they will hold it.

That's because Tennessee has gone five consecutive games where one team lead for the duration, with the last back-and-forth game being the 2016 loss to Vandy, a game that saw the Commodores score 21 unanswered points in a 45-34 win.

In fact, the only lead change the Vols have experienced since that game came in overtime against Georgia Tech, when Tennessee took a 42-35 lead in the second extra period, then held on (stopping a two-point conversion attempt) to win 42-41.

Otherwise, whichever team has led first in a game against the Volunteers has led for the duration. Or at worst been tied.

9) Georgia held its first five opponents under 20 points:

The Bulldog defense has been outstanding so far this season. (And it's one of the reasons that y'all are so high on Fromm compared to Eason, if we're being honest with ourselves.)

Georgia opponents have scored 10, 19, 14 and 3 through four games — an 11.5 points-per-game average.

If the Junkyard Dawgs can hold Tennessee under 20, it would accomplish a feat not seen since 2006.

The first five games of that season saw Georgia hold its opponents to 12, 0, 0, 13 and 9 points.

(Then they gave up 51, but that's another matter.)

10) Tennessee lost a home game:

The Volunteers are riding a five game winning streak Between the Overalls, dating back to 2016.

For what it's worth, their last loss came when a Top 10 team came to town. Some school named Alabama waxed Tennessee 49-10 last year.

Since then, the Vols have destroyed powerhouse schools Tennessee Tech, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana State and UMass at home.

***

Last I saw Georgia was about a touchdown favorite on the road for this one.

I honestly don't know what to think. One part of me sees the Tennessee team that gave up 600+ yards to Tech and barely squeaked by winless UMass and thinks, "We've got this."

The other part of me has been to Knoxville before, and knows all the injuries that could happen that even good Bulldog teams struggle in the hostile environment and think, "Hang on for dear life."

My guess is Georgia wins, but I'm not confident it'll be a runaway.

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