Top 5 College Football Games I’ve Attended- #5
By Tucker Harlin
Ahead of the 2024 football season, I have been to 75 college football games over the last 18 seasons. I will be adding at least seven more to that tally this fall.
Of course, a vast majority of that 75 is Tennessee, and a good chunk of the last 20 years for the Vols has been rough sledding.
Given that fact, my selection of Tennessee games for this list was pretty easy. However, there’s a non Tennessee game in there that might surprise you.
These are in ascending order, broken up by game, with an honorable mention.
This is my fifth favorite college football game I’ve attended.
#5- GEORGIA at TENNESSEE, 2015- VOLS 38 BULLDOGS 31
The Butch Jones era was one that ended bitterly for Tennessee, but the result of this game was the true beginning of a year’s worth of momentum in his tenure in Knoxville.
This game fell at a time in the schedule in which Tennessee was in desperate need of a big win.
The Vols had blown leads against eventual Big 12 champion Oklahoma and on the road against eventual SEC East champion Florida.
Arkansas had come into Neyland the week before and abused Tennessee with its physical ground attack, leading the Hogs to a 24-20 win.
Georgia started 2015 off a bit more positively, but it wasn’t exactly coming to Knoxville in a momentous manner.
The Bulldogs won their first four against a pair of weak non conference foes in Southern and ULM. Their two SEC wins were dominant wins over a pair struggling opponents in South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
The Bulldogs hosted eventual national champion Alabama week ahead of their contest against Tennessee.
The Crimson Tide stomped all over the Bulldogs in a 38-10 blowout. Add the dying passion behind Mark Richt’s coaching job among the fan base and you didn’t have a super excited program.
What was mostly exciting for Georgia was the start to this game (I say mostly because Nick Chubb had a nasty knee injury on the first possession).
The Bulldogs amassed a 24-3 advantage in the first 27 minutes of the game.
Two of their touchdowns in this stretch were non-offensive. Linebacker Leonard Floyd opened the scoring with a 96-yard scoop-n-score in the middle of the first quarter, and Reggie Davis returned a punt for 70 yards and a score to take the lead to 21.
But the Vols rallied in the closing minutes of the first half.
On the very next possession, Josh Dobbs connected with Josh Smith, who ran for 39 yards and found the end zone for the first time for Tennessee.
Sony Michel lost a fumble while returning the ensuing kickoff, and Dobbs’ screen pass to Alvin Kamara made it a one score deficit for the Vols headed into the locker room.
It wasn’t the quickest start to the second half for either team, but it didn’t take too long for the Vols to get rolling.
A productive pass to Preston Williams and a physical 20-yard run by Jalen Hurd set Dobbs up to tie the game at 24 on Tennessee’s second possession of the half.
Georgia had another empty possession, opening the door for the Vols to take the lead.
Dobbs scurried for 26 yards to get the Vols in a goal to go situation. He found Kamara on an outlet pass three plays later for the go ahead score.
However, Georgia struck back on the very next possession.
Quarterback Greyson Lambert converted a third down with a 16-yard pass to Malcolm Mitchell to end the third quarter.
Lambert uncorked a shot to Reggie Davis for 48 yards and a score to begin the fourth quarter.
The Vols’ following drive lasted 10 plays but came up empty. The defense responded accordingly by forcing a three and out.
Dobbs hooked up with tight ends Ethan Wolf and Alex Ellis on long pass plays to get the Vols into the red zone. His rush touchdown gave Tennessee the lead once more with a little under six minutes to play.
The Vols nearly gave up a tying score on the next possession, but Reggie Davis had a brutally dropped a deep pass as he crossed the plane on 3rd and 9.
Tennessee went three and out on its final possession.
But what followed that three and out is moment I’ll never forget.
Punter Trevor Daniel got the snap at about his own 30. He drilled the punt down to about Georgia’s 7-yard line on the left side of the field.
But once the ball bounced, it did the unthinkable.
The initial hop was about six yards toward the end zone, but the second was a hard left out of bounds inside the 1-yard line.
Hindsight’s always 20/20, but if it wasn’t for Daniel’s heroics, this game could’ve ended very differently.
Lambert was able to connect with his receivers for completions around 20 yards on a few occasions, guiding the Bulldogs to the Tennessee 22-yard line.
An illegal substitution backed Georgia up five yards, and Lambert ultimately couldn’t connect with Malcolm Mitchell on the last play.
The win over Georgia was a turning point for the Vols in the 2015 season.
They would fall in a heartbreaker at Alabama two weeks later, but the Vols won six straight to close the season, mostly in dominant fashion.
Georgia’s only defeat the rest of the way was a 27-3 loss in the Cocktail Party, but the majority of the wins in that stretch weren’t pretty ones.
Richt’s last game was the win over Georgia Tech. He didn’t coach the bowl, turning the page into the Kirby Smart era.
