By the time he had muscled his way across the goal line, all an exhausted Gerald Riggs wanted was to get far away from the swirl of noise he and his Tennessee teammates had played in for three hours, and to sit down.
Ending a game that had been strange in every aspect, Riggs — the former Red Bank High School star — lowered his right shoulder just as he met LSU senior linebacker Cameron Vaughn near the goal line. Gaining leverage beneath the 246-pound defender’s shoulder pads, Riggs continued pumping and driving his legs until he had crossed the goal line for the game-winning touchdown in overtime.
In a UT career that included rushing for 182 yards and two TDs, including an 80-yard scoring sprint, in the previous season’s SEC championship game, that one-yard wrestling match at the goal line in 2005 became the play Riggs is best remembered for by most UT fans.
As eighth-ranked Tennessee prepares to travel to Baton Rouge for Saturday’s noon kickoff against No. 25 LSU, it also stands as the last time the Volunteers have beaten the Bayou Bengals.
“When I got the ball I saw a couple of their defenders waiting at the goal line,” said Riggs, who who had been ranked the nation’s best prep running back by numerous recruiting services and chose to sign with Tennessee over LSU’s offer. “I thought to myself, ‘you can’t avoid contact here, just get low and don’t stop moving your feet.’