ATHENS, Ga. — Mark Richt looked past the mind-boggling offensive statistics to find the most important fact for his Georgia team. When the game was on the line, Georgia made the plays.
Todd Gurley ran for three touchdowns and Keith Marshall added two as No. 5 Georgia recovered after blowing a 17-point lead to beat Tennessee 51-44 on Saturday in the highest-scoring game ever between the SEC rivals.
Georgia, which had never scored more points against the Volunteers in 41 previous meetings, had three takeaways in the final six minutes. Twice Sanders Commings intercepted Tyler Bray, and in between Bray was stripped from behind and the fumble was recovered by Georgia's John Jenkins.
"You can get into statistics, but the bottom line is a lot of games are going to come down to the end where somebody has to make a play," Richt said. "It's nice to have a gut-check and come out on top."
The previous high for points in the series was 84 in Tennessee's 51-33 win in 2006.
Georgia had 282 yards rushing as its two freshmen each topped 100 yards. Gurley had 24 carries for 130 yards. Marshall had 164 yards on only 10 carries.
Former Plant standout Aaron Murray threw two third-quarter touchdown passes to Michael Bennett for the Bulldogs.
Georgia led 27-10 early in the second quarter before Tennessee scored 20 straight.
"We are better in a lot of areas, but we have to shore up the run defense," Vols coach Derek Dooley said. "Georgia is a great running team, but we are a lot better than what we showed."
Texas A&M rout fueled by QB's record game
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Freshman Johnny Manziel shattered school records for yards passing and total offense in Texas A&M's 58-10 win over Arkansas.
Manziel threw for a school-record 453 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a touchdown to lead the Aggies to their first SEC win. He added 104 yards rushing to also break the school and SEC records for yards of total offense with 557.
"There's a lot of points that he left on the field," Texas A&M offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said of Manziel. "He's not extremely comfortable in the offense yet. Once he gets there, the sky's the limit."
The Razorbacks committed three turnovers and lost for the fourth straight time. How will coach John L. Smith keep them positive?
"Let them know that you can't give up on each other," he said. "We haven't given up on anybody. You have to keep believing. 'Quit' isn't in our vocabulary."
No. 3 LSU 38, Towson 22: Zach Mettenberger connected with Odell Beckham Jr. five times for 128 yards and two touchdowns, but the host Tigers were unable to eliminate nagging offensive sloppiness going into this week's game at Florida. Mettenberger finished 15-of-26 for 238 yards passing, but he was sacked four times, missed open receivers and a fumble he gave up — one of three LSU turnovers — led to the first of two touchdown runs by Towson's Terrance West. Towson had a 9-7 lead in the second quarter before LSU responded with 24 straight points.
No. 6 S. Carolina 38, Ky. 17: Marcus Lattimore ran for two touchdowns and Connor Shaw passed for another in the second half as the Gamecocks scored 31 straight against the host Wildcats. Shaw was 15-of-18 for 148 yards and Lattimore rushed for 120 yards on 23 carries. South Carolina trailed 17-7 after a ragged first half, then scored on five of six possessions.
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