Georgia has been bunch of lucky Dawgs

ATHENS, Ga. - The word bandied about this week is not one prideful football players are entirely comfortable using.

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Luck.

Georgia is a good football team, no question. Good enough to win the Southeastern Conference championship. Good enough to be BCS bowl bound.

But the Bulldogs know that being good wouldn't be enough this season if luck hadn't bounced their way.

They're lucky their main SEC East competition was, shall we say, a bit weak this year.

They're lucky South Carolina ended a 67-year drought against Florida in the nick of time.

They're lucky those same Gamecocks missed a point-after attempt against them two months ago that could have meant a different outcome and division representative.

And they're lucky to have a third consecutive opportunity to win a football game and clinch a place in the title game at the Georgia Dome.

Yes, the 2005 Dawgs are more like cats, they seem to have so many divisional lives. Not a single player could come up with any other word to describe the fate that keeps falling into their own hands like a precisely thrown D.J. Shockley pass.

Said cornerback DeMario Minter: "We're one of the luckiest teams in the SEC to have three chances to clinch it. We're lucky. Lucky. That's the word for it."

Said kicker Brandon Coutu: "We're definitely lucky, in a sense. ... Hopefully the third time will be a charm."

Said Shockley: "We are real lucky. In the SEC to get a third chance to clinch division doesn't happen. We have to make sure we get it done this time."

The Bulldogs are down to their last strike on Saturday against Kentucky.

Whiff and they're out and South Carolina is in. Lucky for them, the closer that stands in their way to the Georgia Dome is the SEC East equivalent of Dan Kolb.

Georgia is not going to whiff, mainly because they're lucky enough to have Shockley as their quarterback. He will spend his last home start carving up the Wildcats worse than the Kentucky running game might be able to dent the Bulldogs' defense.

Still, Saturday's game should have been a relatively meaningless respite in the middle of a rivals minefield if Georgia hadn't swung and missed at the past two pitches.

They couldn't get it done with a backup quarterback against Florida two weeks ago. Then they couldn't stop Auburn on fourth-and-10 when it mattered last week.

Now they're having to deal with their first two-game losing streak since 2001 to the same two teams in the midst of an 8-4 season.

"Certainly getting over another loss is not an easy thing to do, but we're doing good job of it," coach Mark Richt said. "Thanks to South Carolina beating Florida, it makes the game with Auburn less important than it would have been. ... Knowing we have a chance to win the East and compete for the SEC championship makes it hurt a little less.

"We still have some more things to fight for."

Let's just say things would seem a lot uglier around Athens right now if the SEC title game wasn't still attainable. It's hard for faithful Bulldogs fans to get too upset with a coach who averages more than 10 wins a season. However, there hasn't been this much grumbling about Richt since he was cutting his teeth in his first head-coaching season.

Nobody was happy seeing Richt call conservative running plays on late-game third-and-longs in both losses that led to insufficient field goals. And the confusion and mismanagement of the aborted two-point conversion effort against Auburn was inexcusable for a fifth-year coach.

But all of that restlessness will be mollified if Georgia does what it's supposed to do this Saturday afternoon and beat a Kentucky team that has no real business beating Georgia.

Rest assured, the lucky Dawgs won't be taking their last chance lightly.

"There's no chance in this universe of us being flat for Kentucky," said defensive end Ray Gant. "There will be a lot of emotions on the field out there Saturday."

Said freshman receiver Mohamed Massaquoi: "There is more pride than pressure going into the Kentucky game. Coming into this season we had a goal and now it's time to obtain and capitalize on that goal and make it to the SEC championship."

Anything less and more than luck will have run out on the Bulldogs. So will some patience.

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