‘Lay down!’ 30 years later, USC legends remember wild, last-second win over Georgia

“Watch the clock! 18, 17, 16...lay down you guys! 14, 13, 12...lay down! 11, 10...South Carolina is going to try to get a play off.

“Taneyhill up to the line. Taneyhill going to give it to Bennett, and we hit him! He scored on the last play of the game!

“Bennett, a great athlete, leaps over the pile and broke our hearts with two seconds to go. We couldn’t keep them on the ground long enough.” — Late former University of Georgia radio announcer Larry Munson

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In the closing moments of a tense, hard-fought Southeastern Conference football game in front of more than 80,000 screaming maniacs, less than 20 seconds can somehow feel like eternity.

And three decades ago, University of South Carolina running back Brandon Bennett and quarterback Steve Taneyhill — along with a call from late, legendary University of Georgia radio play-by-play announcer Larry Munson — combined to create a moment that will live in USC-UGA rivalry lore for all of eternity.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of South Carolina’s improbable last-second 23-21 win over No. 14 Georgia on a scorching September afternoon in Athens. The Gamecocks and Bulldogs have played a number of memorable games in the years since and are prepared to meet once again at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, but the 1993 meeting between USC and UGA has proved particularly memorable.

The combination of USC’s desperate effort to get into the endzone as the clock ticked toward zero, along with the call of the play from Munson (not to mention USC’s own radio call from the late Bob Fulton and color commentator Tommy Suggs, who still works South Carolina broadcasts), has made the 1993 game between the Bulldogs and Gamecocks an indelible chapter in Southern football mythology.

Say the phrase “Bennett over the top” to virtually any USC fan of a certain age, and they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about.

Recalling a muggy day in Athens

Bennett, Taneyhill and Suggs all have vivid memories of the 1993 Georgia game, but one of the first things each of them recalled — unprompted — was a particular aspect of that September gameday in Athens: the heat.

“Someone asked me just last week, what was the hottest game I’ve ever played in, and that was it, the 1993 opener at Georgia,” Taneyhill said. “These kids now, they don’t understand. We didn’t have Under Armour and these jerseys that wick sweat. We didn’t have all that. I remember at halftime we went in the locker room and they made us take our pants, shoulder pads and helmet off and stand under a cold shower.”

A weather history entry on the Old Farmer’s Almanac website notes it was 92 degrees on Sept. 4, 1993, in Athens.

“It was hot,” Bennett said. “It had rained, and I mean it was muggy hot. Terrible.”

Suggs, a longtime insurance executive and former USC quarterback who has been working as a color commentator on Gamecocks football radio broadcasts for more than 50 years, said it was roasting in the radio booth during that game.

“The broadcast booth was a lot different than it is now,” Suggs said. “It didn’t have air conditioning. I was wringing wet. I had sweated through all of my clothes. It was somewhat embarrassing, but I didn’t care. We just beat Georgia.”

‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’

While the 1993 tilt between USC and Georgia was a close game between two old rivals, its legacy has boiled down, essentially, to the final two plays.

With less than 30 seconds remaining, South Carolina trailed 21-17 and found itself on Georgia’s one-yard line, knocking on the door of the endzone. The Gamecocks lined up in a power-I formation, and Taneyhill turned and handed off to Bennett, who attempted to dive over the pile at the goal line. However, he was met at the top of the pile by the Georgia defense and didn’t get in.

At that point, there were only 20 seconds left in the ballgame, and the clock was steadily ticking away.

Taneyhill hustled to get the Gamecocks’ offensive line and other players up off the ground and back into place for one more play — all as Munson was famously on the radio imploring the Bulldogs to “lay down!” so that time might run out.

“I was just in the pile of people, hollering, ‘Same play! Same play! Same play!’ ” Taneyhill recalls. “All we had to do was line up and run the same play. ... You couldn’t hear anything, the crowd was so loud that day. We were doing everything on a silent count. I was tapping the center, and he was snapping it.”

Bennett said his teammates were determined to get the ball in the endzone, and it was a scramble to get off one more play after the first dive attempt came up short.

“When we didn’t make it, (Taneyhill) came back and said to repeat it,” Bennett said. “Everyone was trying to get up and get set. It was one of those things where it was almost like controlled chaos. But we were all together. Everyone said, ‘We got this.’ There was a whole lot going on, but if you look at the (final) play, no one was out of sync.”

The Gamecocks were able to get lined up and snapped the ball with just four seconds remaining. Taneyhill once again gave it to Bennett, who leaped and this time cleared the pile, falling across the goal line with the ball outstretched and only two seconds left on the clock.

It was at that moment on the UGA broadcast that Munson said, “Bennett, a great athlete, leaps over the pile and broke our hearts with two seconds to go.”

Meanwhile, providing color commentary on the USC broadcast, Suggs jubilantly exclaimed, “Touchdown! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Suggs said it was an almost cathartic moment when Bennett burst across the goal line as the clock ticked down in what was a long, fierce game on a sweltering day.

“I’ve told people this before, many times, but I’m a fan first,” Suggs said. “I’m not a professional announcer, clearly everyone understands that. They say, ‘You’ve been doing it 51 years.’ Yeah, but I only do it 13 times a year. I’m a fan first, and I try to be disciplined and hold it in. But sometimes it just comes out. I think people like that, and that’s who I am. That time (in 1993), it was just a special moment in broadcasting.

“You don’t get many times to call something like that.”

‘Where has the time gone?’

Bennett chuckled during a recent conversation when a reporter mentioned it’s been 30 years since he jumped over the pile and broke the Bulldogs’ hearts at Sanford Stadium.

“It’s crazy when you think about it,” Bennett said. “I think all athletes, when you’ve played, those memories are something you remember like it happened yesterday. So when you say 30 years, man, it’s like ‘wow.’ Where has the time gone? It’s flown.”

Bennett remains South Carolina’s second all-time leading rusher and played 10 seasons in the NFL after leaving USC, for the Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals and others. Now 50, Bennett lives in Greenville and enjoys watching his own sons, Braydon and Brandon Jr., compete in high-level athletics. Braydon plays football at Coastal Carolina University, and Brandon Jr. runs track at Limestone University.

Taneyhill, also 50, is now a fixture on the bar and restaurant scene in Columbia. He owns the venerable Five Points bar Group Therapy, and he and some partners recently purchased Breakers and Breakers Live in Five Points. The Breakers location has been transformed into a Gamecock-centric bar and grill called CB18. Taneyhill also owns Prime Restaurant and Whiskey Lounge in Spartanburg.

The former quarterback and Altoona, Pennsylvania native said it is hard to believe three decades have passed since that humid day in Sanford Stadium.

“Someone told me a few years ago, ‘You love to see the birthdays come, you just don’t want to hear the number that goes with them,’ ” Taneyhill said, with a laugh. “Time has gone by pretty quick. To be 30 years since that game, jeez, that’s a long time. I was 20 when that happened. But it’s still pretty neat to have played in some big games, and now we get to look back.”