Believe it or not: Dogs root for Spurrier

ATHENS, Ga. - Chicken Little premiered in theaters over the weekend, but alarmists have been fearing a falling sky for months.

Catastrophic tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados have been ravaging huge swaths of the globe since last Christmas. Terrorists, war, pirates and a potential bird flu pandemic has everyone more than a little chicken.

Now in the town where former house band R.E.M. once sang of It's The End of the World As We Know It, not everything feels fine. In fact, the feeling this week in Athens is downright creepy.

"Stuff you never thought would happen is happening," said Georgia senior defensive back DeMario Minter. "I never thought I would see the day."

Eschatologists - those who study last things and Armageddon and that stuff - probably never considered it among the seven signs of the Apocalypse. But what's going on this week certainly seems as strange as seas boiling, plagues or pestilence.

Yes, people, Georgia fans are actually pulling for Steve Spurrier. That's right. The man every self-respecting Bulldog lover knows as the "Evil Genius" is actually working in cahoots with Georgia's best interests this Saturday.

In one of the great upside-down situations in college football, Spurrier can coach a victory that can simultaneously crush his alma mater (Florida) and elevate Georgia into the Southeastern Conference Championship game.

Who knew South Carolina could be so relevant in the SEC East?

"I've got no problem cheering for Spurrier right now," said Georgia head ballcoach Mark Richt of the longtime chief antagonist who's now chief Gamecock.

To make matters doubly weird, Georgia's daunting opponent Saturday evening - defending SEC champion Auburn - is actually in the heinous position of cheering

for its uber-rival Alabama to stay undefeated by beating Louisiana State that same afternoon.

C'mon! Dawgs and cats (well, Tigers) rooting together! Mass hysteria!

"Saturday will be interesting," said Richt, knowing that Georgia and Auburn will kick off late enough to already know the fate of the other key conference games.

"Whether or not we like to admit it, both teams will be paying attention to those games."

Brief primer here in case you're not up to date with the situation. Georgia is a game up on Florida in the SEC East and controls its own destiny as long as it wins.

But if the Gators, who nearly lost to Vanderbilt in overtime last week, should lose to South Carolina, all the Bulldogs would need to do is win one of their two remaining conference games to represent the division in the SEC Championship.

Since one of those two games is against Kentucky and it's already basketball season, consider that a lock.

As for Auburn, it needs Alabama to beat LSU (who already beat Auburn) if the Tigers hope for a chance to face the Tide with the SEC West title on the line.

And as for Spurrier, well he's trying to play down the fact that his suddenly competitive Gamecocks are meeting the suddenly fragile Gators who still have five players on the roster he actually recruited while at Florida.

"It's been three years since I coached there," Spurrier said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. "This is my team now."

This kinder, gentler Spurrier isn't going to say how much he really wants to beat Florida and prove that he should have been the man the Gators begged to come back before demanding rsums and eventually hiring Urban Meyer.

A win against the beatable Gators on Saturday not only would extend South Carolina's best-ever SEC winning streak to five games but give the Gamecocks a share of second place in the division. Considering what Spurrier inherited, that would be impressive.

All this makes for some very strange bedfellows. Not everyone is comfortable with adopting a "Go Spurrier!" mentality.

"No, I can't do that," said Georgia running back Thomas Brown when asked if he'll be a Spurrier fan this week.

Then is Brown actually rooting for Florida?

"No," Brown said, "I don't think I can pull for either one of them."

Since ties are no longer an option, Bulldogs and Tigers will do what they have to do Saturday. If that means wishing well on sworn enemies, so be it.

"Everybody wants to play in the Dome," said Bulldogs senior safety Greg Blue. "If one team can help another, they're going to root for each other."

It just doesn't seem right. But if it means the potential for more "Sugar falling from the sky" as radio legend Larry Munson once put it, anyone in Sanford Stadium on Saturday night better keep a wary eye on the heavens.

"Oh yeah, it might start raining (cats and dogs)," quarterback D.J. Shockley said of the weirdness that has Spurrier and Georgia sharing common interests. "It might be the first time we've ever pulled for him."

Here's hoping it's not the last thing any of us ever do.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.