UGASports is counting down the days until the 2018 season opener. From Georgia’s greatest plays in its football history, to some of the more obscure: Today on Day 80, we feature Frank Harvey’s 80-yard touchdown run off a dive play against Florida in 1992.
Of the roughly two dozen 80-yard plays executed by the Bulldogs in their football history, and although resulting in a loss, perhaps the most unexpected and intriguing was Frank Harvey’s 80-yard touchdown run against Florida in Jacksonville in 1992.
After the Gators scored a touchdown on the game’s opening drive, Georgia took over on its own 20-yard line. In the Bulldogs’ backfield was Garrison Hearst, who had rushed for 1,232 yards in eight games that season while in the running for the Heisman Trophy—and there was Harvey who, in averaging less than four carries per game, had gained 158 yards, ranking a distant fourth on the team. Assuredly, very few—if any—of the 84,000-plus spectators in the Gator Bowl and the millions watching on TV expected for Harvey to be handed the ball—and on a fullback dive. Perhaps more astonishing was the 235-pound back’s blazing speed after he broke through the line and pulled away from a very athletic and fast Florida defense into the opposing end zone.
Harvey added 33 yards on seven carries to finish with 113 rushing yards in Georgia’s 26-24 loss to the Gators. His performance would mark the only 100-yard rushing game by a Bulldog other than Hearst during the 1992 season, and the lone 100-yard rushing outing by a Georgia player against Florida from 1990 until 1997.