When Dameyune Craig threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Karsten Bailey with 6:07 left in the second quarter on Nov. 16, 1996, it seemed the rout was on.
Auburn wasn’t supposed to have a lot of trouble with Georgia on that day. After all, the Tigers were 7-2 and the Bulldogs, in Jim Donnan’s first season, were 4-5. And when Craig found Bailey in the end zone, the score ballooned to 28-7.
It seemed the game would be best remembered for Uga, Georgia’s bulldog, trying to bite Auburn receiver Robert Baker when he caught a touchdown pass that made the score 14-7.
No one could have guessed that this game would be one for the record books. Instead of a rout, it would become the first overtime game in Southeastern Conference history.
Georgia scored in the final seconds of the first half, cashing in on a Craig fumble and again early in the fourth quarter. But in the game’s final seconds, it appeared Auburn held on. Marcus Washington sacked Georgia quarterback Mike Bobo at the Auburn 30. The clock hit eight seconds as Bobo went down, and Georgia had no timeouts.
But the ball rolled out of Bobo’s grasp after he hit the ground. Auburn defensive tackle Charles Dorsey, thinking it might have been a fumble, picked it up and started to run. Officials stopped the clock, giving Bobo time to spike the ball with one second left.
On the final of play of regulation, he hit Corey Allen for a touchdown that sent the game into overtime.
Auburn scored first. Georgia answered. Then Georgia scored and Auburn answered. Then Auburn scored again and Georgia answered.
Georgia scored its final touchdown on a 1-yard run by Torin Kirtsey. Finally, on fourth-and-three, Craig was stopped short of a first down and Georgia had won 56-49.
Auburn coach Terry Bowden would later call it the most devastating loss of his Auburn tenure.
Craig completed 22-of-35 passes for 290 yards and rushed 12 times for 72 yards. Auburn had 539 yards offense. Georgia had 556.
Bobo, who completed 21-of-37 passes for 360 yards that day, is now the offensive coordinator who will call plays when the 2009 Tigers go to Sanford Stadium on Saturday.
When it was over, the Bulldogs had handed Bowden bitter disappointment for the second time. Two seasons earlier, they had escaped with a stunning 23-23 tie that ended Bowden’s and Auburn’s 20-game winning streak.
Bowden was 3-0 against Georgia in Athens. But he was 0-1-1 at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
