Okay, this doesn’t really have anything to do with Georgia (hence why I’m post-dating it), but it does have to do with awesome.
I think what really makes this for me isn’t that he got the first down, it’s that he broke a tackle!
I’ve seen jokes about tackle-eligible plays, but unfortunately those doesn’t really work in college, thanks to this rule:
Eligibility To Touch Legal Forward Pass
ARTICLE 3. a. Eligibility rules apply during a down when a legal forward pass is thrown.
- All Team B players are eligible to touch or catch a pass.
- When the ball is snapped, the following Team A players are eligible:
1. Each lineman who is on the end of his scrimmage line and who is wearing a number other than 50 through 79.2. Each back wearing a number other than 50 through 79.
Half the point of a tackle-eligible play is that you have an otherwise normal offensive lineman with an offensive lineman’s number up there on the end of the line go run a route and not block. It sort of loses part of the deception if #64 the rest of the game suddenly appears on the end of the line as #24. (Note that the NFL allows such a player to report himself “eligible” to the referee before the start of a play, which is why a lot of times when you see teams in their goalline packages you can hear the referee say “number 72 has reported eligible”.)