By Patrick Garbin—Twitter @PGarbinDT
POINT SPREAD TUESDAY: It’s Tuesday, signifying “Point Spread Tuesday” on The Daily Dawg Caller, which will be posted each week Georgia faces an opponent whereby there’s an extended “point-spread history” between the schools. And, for any meeting long ago where there was no official Vegas spread/line, I search as far back as possible to discover some sort of reliable odds established for the game.
Played from 1899 to 1937, the first 13 games of the Georgia-Tennessee series were split between the schools 6-6-1 straight up, while there were no reliable point spreads during that time. After a 31-year hiatus, the series resumed in 1968. Since then, the Bulldogs are 15-16-1 straight up against the Volunteers, and have a similar record of 15-17 against the spread. In the rivalry’s last 10 meetings, although the Dogs were 6-4 straight up, they struggled against the number, covering just twice in the 10 games.
Currently, the Volunteers are a 3½-point favorite over the Bulldogs, marking the first time since 2009 Tennessee has been favored in the series. In the 33 meetings from 1968 to the present, including this Saturday’s 3½-point line, the average point spread of the rivalry is approximately 7 points (In comparison, Georgia-Ole Miss was 8 points). Speaking of the Bulldogs being the underdog in this series, they have been so 17 times, favored in 15 games, and there has been one “even” game—the rare “Pick ‘Em”—which occurred in 1969, and resulted in a 17-3 Tennessee victory.
Notably, this Saturday marks the sixth time Georgia has not been the favorite over Tennessee when playing in its own backyard. The Bulldogs are 0-5 straight up as a non-favorite versus the Vols in Athens:
Although Georgia has had no luck upsetting Tennessee at home, the Dogs have dumped the Vols on the road as an underdog on five occasions, most notably pulling huge upsets in Knoxville in 1973 (35-31 win as an 11-point underdog) and 2001 (26-24 victory as an 11-point underdog).
In 2001, the Mark Richt head-coaching era got off on the right foot in the series with a victory and an easy cover. Richt was 4-1 versus the Vols straight up and against the spread his first five seasons before, as mentioned, tumbling to a 2-8 mark against the number in his final decade as Georgia’s head man.
Speaking of Richt, the straight-up and against-the-spread records of Georgia’s head coaches versus Tennessee from 1968-2015:
