|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
Inside College Football
Georgia coach Mark Richt pulled a play out of a familiar book to upset Tennessee By Ivan Maisel
After an incompletion Greene threw passes of 26 and 14 yards to junior tight end Randy McMichael. On first-and-goal at the six with 10 seconds to play, the Bulldogs used their last timeout. When Greene came to the sideline, Richt had to yell instructions into the earhole of Greene's helmet to be heard above the roar of the Tennessee fans. Richt called for a play-action pass to senior fullback Verron Haynes. The Bulldogs hadn't run this play in a game this year. Richt, though, had employed it twice in critical moments during the Seminoles' 1999 national championship season. (Chris Weinke had used it to throw a second-quarter touchdown to fullback Dan Kendra in Florida State's 41-35 defeat of Georgia Tech and a two-point conversion to Kendra late in the third quarter of a 17-14 victory at Clemson.) "If it's against the right coverage, it's almost impossible to stop," Richt says. "It's hard for a middle linebacker to see a fullback coming at him like it's an isolation play and not step up. That's what linebackers do." Tennessee defensive coordinator John Chavis didn't think it should have been so hard to resist falling for the play-action. "Ninety-nine-point-five percent of the time, they're not going to run the ball in that situation," Chavis said. With the Volunteers' safeties in double coverage on the Georgia receivers, Haynes blew past the linebackers and had no one within five yards of him. Greene flipped him the ball, and the Bulldogs won in Knoxville for the first time since 1980. "I told Greeny, if it was any other coverage, throw it out of the end zone," Richt said. "I was trying to think of what to do next while the play was going on. Then I quit and just watched." Issue date: October 15, 2001
For more Inside College Football see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, October 10. Click here to subscribe to SI.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
