Former Georgia defensive end David Pollack has seen a lot of football over the years, but ask the 40-year-old what he remembers about September 14, 2002, and he rattles off details today like he just walked off the field in Williams-Brice Stadium.
Pollack cited Travelle Wharton as the left tackle that the South Carolina Gamecocks pitted against the Bulldogs’ defense that afternoon. He remembered the 52-minute lightning delay that forced both teams to the locker room. Perhaps most impressively, Pollack could still rattle off the formation South Carolina was in when he delivered one of the most beloved moments in Georgia football history.
Tucson Open Stud. “Open” meant the formation had an offset back. “Stud” referred to the strong side of the formation.
The Gamecocks were in Tucson Open Stud as they trailed the Bulldogs 3-0 with just over 14 minutes to go when Pollack charged off the snap of the ball, worked his way past South Carolina right tackle Jonathan Alston and running back Daccus Turman then met Gamecocks quarterback Corey Jenkins in the end zone as Jenkins loaded up to throw. Pollack’s leap to block Jenkins’ pass proved to have impeccable timing, as Pollack’s deflection sent the ball down Jenkins’ back and just within Pollack’s reach as the Bulldogs defender fell to the ground for an improbable touchdown.
“I used to go everywhere with [Georgia quarterback] David Greene, and David Greene was my roommate and my buddy from Little League way back in the day. Everybody asked for David's autograph, and it was awesome — I would just kind of walk by and they would all harass him,” Pollack said. “From that play on, that never happened again.”
Pollack’s play was an incredible occurrence of right place, right time by a defender who used the moment as his coming-out party to Georgia fans. Throw in the fact that just four days earlier Pollack was convinced he had suffered a devastating injury, and the outcome is borderline unbelievable.
Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of Pollack’s unforgettable defensive touchdown that helped Georgia take home a 13-7 victory in a game that proved crucial in later winning the SEC. The touchdown not only set the stage for Pollack to become a household name in college football, but it proved to be momentous for a Georgia program still in the midst of taking a brand-new direction.
“You don't think much about that game because it's Game 1 [of SEC play],” former Georgia head coach Mark Richt said. “If we don't win that game, we don't win the East and we don't win the SEC for the first time in 20 years. It was one play that changed the game and then one game that changed the trajectory of whether or not we were going to win the SEC.”
Throwing it back to 2002 for one of the most iconic moments in Georgia football history. David Pollack picked off South Carolina’s QB Corey Jenkins using one hand in the endzone for a TD.#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/rBPl8gQcUB
All Georgia defensive ends coach Jon Fabris could think to do was pray.
It was September 10, 2002, and the Bulldogs were going through their Tuesday practice three days after beating Clemson 31-28 with the focus turning to the Gamecocks. Tuesday practices were always Georgia’s most physical back then, and as Pollack went through an inside drill, he engaged with the offensive tackle before getting hit low by one of Georgia’s tight ends. That hit bent Pollack backwards, which left him shaken up and his position coach convinced the sophomore had blown out his knee.
The uncertainty in that moment was almost emotional for Fabris, who had seen Pollack move from defensive tackle to defensive end without complaint during spring practice before working tirelessly on his own in the summer to prepare for his new role.
Those hopes appeared dashed in the span of a split second, so Fabris prayed.
“I just winced and dropped my head, and at that very moment I prayed, 'Lord, if you'll spare him, he'll never be in another inside drill as long as I'm coaching at Georgia,'” Fabris said. “And he got up and he kind of started gimping around, hobbling around and shaking his leg.”
Pollack remembered having tears in his eyes as Georgia’s medical staff drove him to get an MRI. Fortunately for Fabris, his prayer was answered: Pollack only sprained his MCL, leaving him with a chance to play against the Gamecocks.
Looking back 20 years later, Fabris wanted one thing on the record about that scare.
“The truth of the matter is he was never in another inside drill the next 2 1/2 years. In fact, he never scrimmaged one time after that,” Fabris said.
Georgia entered 2002 with high hopes of building off a promising Year 1 under Richt and his staff, but South Carolina was an obvious obstacle to get past. Led by head coach Lou Holtz, South Carolina had manufactured one of the sport’s greatest turnarounds in the previous three seasons — a stretch that included back-to-back wins over the Bulldogs.
In order to snap that streak, Georgia had to get the job done in Williams-Brice, a place notorious for its crowd noise. Fabris, who spent the 1999 season on Holtz’s staff in Columbia, recalled a mantra Gamecocks fans had about the stadium: “If it ain’t swayin’, we ain’t playin’.”
The Bulldogs entered the contest with a quarterback battle between Greene and backup DJ Shockley — the latter having led Georgia past Clemson the week before — but in the early going Greene did his best to prove himself up for the task. The Bulldogs’ first play from scrimmage saw Greene pump fake then fire deep down the left sideline toward Fred Gibson, who caught the ball in stride before being taken down for a 52-yard gain.
Georgia barely avoided disaster on the drive when an errant Greene throw just missed being intercepted, leading to Billy Bennett’s 22-yard field goal. The hope at that point was the Bulldogs had more big plays up their sleeves like the Greene-to-Gibson bomb; as time wore on, it became abundantly clear that was not the case.
The two teams played nearly six minutes of football before Tropical Storm Hanna made her mark by dumping rain on the game. A local lightning strike then forced referee Steve Shaw to send the teams back to the locker rooms.
The delay led to different reactions from the Bulldogs. Richt was scrambling to find his players food to ensure they had enough energy to get through the rest of the game. Fabris focused on lessons from his early coaching days and told his players that stepping back on the field post-delay would be like starting the game completely over.
Pollack, meanwhile, was giving himself a pep talk after what he felt were some missed opportunities.
“I came out in the first several plays, and I was getting the crap kicked out of me. I was terrible. I vividly remember going back to the locker room and I'm like, 'Dude, get your head out of your butt. Let's go. Focus. C'mon, we've got to do better,’” Pollack said. “For me, it re-focused my mind. I remember going into the locker room, and we started the whole process over again after the lightning passed. Then we went back out there and had an epic game.”
Following a near-hour delay, the Bulldogs and Gamecocks returned the field and wasted little time proving most of the highlights on this day would come on defense.
One promising Georgia drive in the first quarter was ruined when Langston Moore brought down Greene for a big sack on third down. The Gamecocks muffed the ensuing punt to give Georgia ample field position only for Georgia to fumble the ball right back to South Carolina on the first play of the resulting drive.
The turnovers between the teams were just starting at that point.
A second-quarter South Carolina drive that got within yards of the goal line ended with the ball on the ground and Pollack on top of it. Gibson fumbled the ball back to the Gamecocks on the next possession, which led to the Gamecocks lining up and missing a 37-yard field goal.
The Bulldogs returned to the locker room with a 3-0 lead at halftime. By the 14:06 point in the third quarter, the two teams had combined for 13 possessions, six of which ended in punts and four of which ended with lost fumbles.
As frustrating as the inability to finish was for either side, Fabris explained it didn’t lessen the tension building between them.
“It's like a heavyweight fight: he wins a round, I win a round. I knock him down, he knocks me down. Where's he going to be when the bell rings in the 15th round?” Fabris said. “You can just feel that every play could be the play of the game. It's not going to be one of these deals where, yeah, we've got some breathing room. No — every play. You can feel the desperation — on both teams' part — the desperation to stop these guys.”
Pretty soon, Pollack delivered the long-awaited play of the game.
The Bulldogs were clinging to a three-point lead with 14:06 on the clock when Jenkins took the snap on the South Carolina 1-yard line and Pollack took off.
Pollack said that formation — Tucson Open Stud — meant a rollout pass roughly 95% of the time, so he worked to his left as Alston and Turman tried to stop him. Those efforts didn’t amount to much — Alston slowed Pollack down ever so briefly while Turman went low and immediately hit the turf — leaving Pollack one-on-one with South Carolina’s 6-foot-1, 220-pound QB.
Looking back at the play 20 years later, Pollack emphasized his intent was solely to bat the ball down and leave South Carolina looking at a third-and-7 deep in its own territory.
Instead, gravity gifted Pollack a play for the ages.
Arguably the most underrated aspect of Pollack’s play is Shaw, who is now the sport’s national coordinator of officials. Shaw’s position in the end zone provided him a perfect view as the ball somehow ended up in Pollack’s possession.
“Remember, there's no instant replay at this point, so it's his call or not. That play doesn't happen if he's not right there and sees it,” Pollack said. “He saw me catch it, and the rest is history.”
Pollack’s unlikely score left him racing around the end zone with teammate Chris Clemons while the coaches calmly instructed the special teams unit to go out for the extra point. Richt, Fabris and company understood No. 47 had delivered a game-altering play for the Dawgs, but as fate would have it, the Snellville native had one more of those still to come.
Pollack’s fourth-quarter interception is the moment everyone remembers from the 2002 South Carolina game. But had Pollack not made one more play in the game’s final seconds, it’s possible his heads-up pick would have been a total afterthought.
Georgia led 10-0 after Pollack’s touchdown, but South Carolina didn’t go away without a fight. The Gamecocks got on the board nearly two minutes later when Jenkins hit Ryan Brewer for a 25-yard touchdown. The score remained 10-7 until just under three minutes remaining when Bennett nailed a 25-yard kick to force South Carolina to find the end zone or take the loss.
The Gamecocks nearly got in their own way for the final time by fumbling the ensuing kickoff, but they maintained possession on their own 25 with 2:43 on the clock. They reached midfield by the drive’s second play, and four plays later Jenkins found Brewer on a must-have fourth down to get the ball to the Georgia 21.
South Carolina inched closer and closer to handing Georgia a heartbreaking loss. With 20 seconds remaining, the Gamecocks stood on the Bulldogs’ 3-yard line facing a fourth-and-1. Years later, Holtz told Pollack he gave his offensive coordinator — son Skip Holtz — one piece of advice for the play call: “Do not run at 47.”
For whatever reason, the younger Holtz didn’t heed his legendary father’s advice.
The Gamecocks ran a speed option to the left, and as soon as the ball was snapped Pollack raced past the left tackle and forced Jenkins to pitch the ball to running back Andrew Pinnick. The ball bounced off Pinnick’s hands and rolled forward, where Georgia’s Thomas Davis fell on the football to set off a celebratory dash downfield for the Bulldogs.
Even today, Richt is struck by the memory of what immediately followed that final defensive stand.
“When the game is over, head coaches always go shake hands. Usually you have something to say: 'Good game, Coach' or something,” Richt said. “I think both of us were kind of in shock. Just one of those dramatic games even though it wasn't high-scoring, it was a close game obviously. And we just kind of looked at each other, shook hands and walked away. I don't think either one of us said a word.”
Pollack’s fingerprints were all over the Georgia victory. Not only did he have Georgia’s only touchdown, but he also recorded 8 tackles as well as a fumble recovery.
Pollack’s play had made a name for himself. During Richt’s postgame interview with CBS sideline reporter Jill Arrington, the second-year head coach made sure the folks at home knew how to pronounce it.
When Arrington asked about Pollack and pronounced his last name “Po-lack,” Richt softly corrected her by saying, “Well, it’s David Pollack [pronounced Paw-lock], and people are going to learn what kind of ballplayer he is. He’s got the heart of a lion. I’m real proud of that kid.”
Pollack’s efforts against South Carolina were just the beginning of his stardom as a Bulldog, as he led the SEC in sacks in 2002 on his way to SEC Defensive Player of the Year. The accolades continued to pour in for Pollack during his time in Athens, as he wound up being a three-time first team All-American — only the second in program history — a two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year and the recipient of the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Lott Trophy and the Lombardi Award. He was twice given the Ted Hendricks Award as the top defensive end in college football.
“It was the game that changed my future,” Pollack said. “It was the game that gave me the confidence to realize that I could be a great player and I could be an impact player. I played a bunch of snaps, played hard the whole game and so it kind of let myself know, like, I can do this and I can be good.”
As for the 2002 Georgia squad, the nerve-racking win in Columbia proved to be the difference between playing in Atlanta and watching from up the road.
The Bulldogs finished the regular season with an 11-1 overall record and a 7-1 record in SEC play, one game better than rival Florida. Had Georgia lost to South Carolina, Florida would have won the head-to-head tiebreaker and prevented the Bulldogs from facing Arkansas and ultimately winning the SEC for the first time since 1982.
“Sure, we were happy to be 1-0 in the SEC and 2-0 overall, but little did we know if we lose that game, odds are the SEC championship never takes place, the SEC Championship Game against Arkansas never takes place, the first time Georgia had won an SEC championship in 20 years. Nor does the Sugar Bowl. None of that stuff ever takes place,” Fabris said. “It's amazing to think about.”
Pollack’s NFL playing career ended abruptly due to a neck injury, and he eventually transitioned to the TV side of the game and is now a mainstay on ESPN’s “College GameDay”. Although Pollack has not played football in 16 years, Fabris said Pollack prepares as thoroughly for a broadcast as he did for Georgia’s next opponent — just look at how few notes are in front of him wherever he’s on set.
Pollack’s role on the show means he still interacts with fans on a regular basis. Although it’s now been 20 years since the play against the Gamecocks occurred, he said it remains a popular topic of conversation.
“Every time I meet a Georgia fan that's within 10 years of me — younger or older — every time I meet them it's, 'I remember where I was when you made that play.' Like, it's by far the most-mentioned-to-me thing that I get,” Pollack said. “It's something that, for whatever reason, is definitely stuck in the heads with everybody. I mean, not just Georgia fans, too. A lot of times college football fans will say something to me.
“It's definitely brought up in conversation a lot — more than anything else that I ever did in my career.”
Seven years ago, Pollack was interviewed about his touchdown by The State’s David Cloninger, and Pollack joked about re-enacting the play with Jenkins on the 20th anniversary (Jenkins politely turned down the request at the time).
Now that the anniversary has arrived, Pollack said don’t expect anything like that. The play was, after all, a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
“If I tried that when I was back at Georgia 20 years ago when I was 20 years old, if I tried that 100 more times, that might happen once,” Pollack said. “I mean, to hit the quarterback's hand at the right angle at the right time when he's throwing the football and then for it to fall down his back slowly — I mean, I don't know the Sport Science and the John Brenkus, you know, when they do that and they do the percentages and stuff. It'd be fun to see it.
“I just don't think I could do it again. I haven't seen very many plays like that throughout my career, and I don't think I could do it again.”
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