Bulldogs Caught A Break, And Ran With It
September 14, 2025 | Football, The Frierson Files
Staff Writer
Sometimes you need a little luck to get to where you want to go. And sometimes that luck comes at the end of grinding away at something really difficult.
Late Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium, having rallied back from a couple of substantial deficits against a good Tennessee team and a roaring crowd of 101,915, including tying the game 38-38 with 2:32 remaining. Georgia got some luck. And the sixth-ranked Bulldogs took advantage of it.
The 15th-ranked Volunteers had driven down to the Georgia 20-yard line in the final 10 seconds, in range for a game-winning field goal. Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart called a timeout with seven seconds left, and on the next play, Tennessee committed a false start. After moving back five yards, to the 25, the Vols' Max Gilbert, who'd connected from 48 yards earlier, missed a 43-yard kick.Â
Having survived to go to overtime, Georgia (3-0, 1-0 SEC) stopped the explosive Vols offense to begin the extra period, holding them to a 41-yard Gilbert field goal. The Bulldogs then began their drive with a 21-yard Nate Frazier run to the 4. Two plays later, Josh McCray, Georgia's powerful, 240-pound running back, plowed into the pile of bodies in front of him and reached the ball across the goal line for a 1-yard, game-winning touchdown.
With some luck and a lot of fortitude, the Bulldogs left Knoxville with a 44-41 win.
"Got to give Georgia credit for finishing it the way you need to to win that game," Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said.
"All in all, a great game, but I almost feel like I have to apologize, because I don't think we should have won that game," Smart said. "I thought they outplayed us in a lot of ways, but that's the way it goes."
While the Bulldogs' offense had a big game, passing for 304 yards and rushing for 198, the Volunteers were right there with them (371 passing, 125 rushing). Both defenses gave up a lot of big plays, but they also got some key stops. Georgia's Joenel Aguero and KJ Bolden had critical interceptions to stop Tennessee drives.
"I think that is a really good football team that we just played," Smart said. "I don't think we played our best football, especially defensively; I give (the Vols) credit, though, they made plays down the field."
Tennessee produced a lot of long pass plays, including touchdowns of 72, 56 and 32 yards. But Georgia's offense was just as effective in its own way, mixing its grind-it-out ground game with some explosive plays through the air. The Bulldogs' first play of the game was a 45-yard completion from quarterback Gunner Stockton to wide receiver Colbie Young. Georgia later got a 36-yard touchdown pass from Stockton to Zachariah Branch to cut UT's lead to 21-14 in the second quarter.
And with the game on the line, with Tennessee leading 38-30 and Georgia facing a fourth-and-6 at the UT 28, Stockton hit London Humphreys on the right side for a touchdown. On the 2-point attempt to tie the game, Stockton found Branch in the front left corner of the end zone.
"We were just going to take a shot there, and we needed to score fast," Smart said of the play on fourth down, adding that the deep pass might be available on a play when the defense was more focused on preventing the first down. "Sometimes you get an advantage when people play the sticks and you're willing to take a shot … because it was no guarantee that we were going to get the two. ... You can't assume it's a tie. The 2-point conversion was the play of the game because that actually gave us a chance."
It was the offense that kept Georgia in the game. Stockton, in his fourth career start and first on the road, passed for a career-high 304 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing for 38 yards and a touchdown. The Bulldogs also showed their depth at receiver and running back, putting up big numbers by committee. Branch, Young and Dillon Bell led the wideouts with a combined 13 catches for 165 yards, while Frazier, Stockton, Chauncey Bowens and Dwight Phillips Jr. combined for 172 yards on the ground.
McCray, who played in 33 games and rushed for 1,370 yards and 14 touchdowns at Illinois before transferring to Georgia over the summer, had two carries against Marshall and one against Austin Peay. But against Tennessee, his seven rushes for 17 yards were pivotal. At the end of a 14-play drive to open the second half, a drive with 13 runs, McCray scored from the 1 to give Georgia a 24-21 lead.
In overtime, when the Bulldogs had held the Vols to a field goal and needed a touchdown for the come-from-behind win, Frazier got Georgia to the 4, and McCray delivered the victory.
"He was a difference-maker," Smart said, adding, "McCray was great today; he was really instrumental. I told (the coaches) in overtime, 'Let's get this guy going.' Of course, Nate had the big run, and then he came in and finished it off."
It took a little luck to get there, but the Bulldogs made the most of it.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
