Georgia flies "under the radar"

ATLANTA - Georgia was supposed to be a Southeastern Conference afterthought.

The Bulldogs seemed a likely candidate for a rebuilding year after losing a half-dozen key players off last season's team, including the winningest quarterback in major-college history and two first-round NFL draft picks on the defensive side.

Besides, Tennessee and Florida were projected as the two strongest teams in the Eastern Division, the Vols with their usual overflow of talent, the Gators with their bright new coach and his revolutionary offense.

Well, as the end of another season approaches, guess who's back in the SEC championship game?

Yep, it's Georgia, for the third time in four years.

"I think this team kind of likes flying under radar," cornerback DeMario Minter said Monday. "There wasn't a lot of attention on us. We didn't have a lot of pressure. We just wanted to come out and surprise a lot of folks."

Actually, it's not all that surprising to find the No. 13 Bulldogs in this position. They have clearly become the team to beat in the SEC East since Mark Richt took over as coach in 2001, easing past the perennial powerhouses to their north and south.

In Richt's second season, Georgia won its first SEC championship since 1982. A year later, the Bulldogs got back to the title game, albeit with the help of a hastily developed tiebreaker that snapped a three-way deadlock with Florida and Tennessee.

The Vols were the East representative in 2004, edging Georgia by a game, but the Bulldogs returned to the top spot this season, defying those prognosticators who had them finishing third in the East.

"People were saying that Florida and Tennessee were better than us, that they were going to be on top of the league," quarterback D.J. Shockley said. "We kind of used that as motivation to get better. We didn't want to let what people said in the papers affect how we do. We wanted to let our play stand for how we do."

Georgia (9-2, 6-2) will face another perennial participant in the championship game. No. 3 LSU (10-1, 7-1) made it to Atlanta for the third time in five years, setting up a rematch of the 2003 contest.

The Tigers won that game easily, routing the Bulldogs 34-13 on the way to claiming the BCS championship (Southern California won The Associated Press title). The Tigers also claimed the SEC crown in 2001.

"These two teams are usually up there competing on the national circuit," LSU offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth said. "They have a lot of things that characterize what the SEC is all about. They are both physical teams, very competitive, fast and talented."

Georgia had a surprisingly easy run to the East title, though things got a little tense late in the season. The Bulldogs started with seven straight wins and had a chance to clinch the division before November, but a 14-10 loss to Florida put off the celebration.

Two weeks later, the Bulldogs were again in position to wrap things up, but a 31-30 setback to Auburn delayed things a little longer. Finally, Georgia routed Kentucky in its last conference game to wrap up the championship.

And what about Tennessee and Florida, which combined to win every East title during the first decade of divisional play?

The Vols (5-6) were perhaps the biggest flop in all of college football. They started the season ranked No. 3 in the country but didn't even qualify for a bowl.

At Florida, Urban Meyer brought in the touted spread offense but failed to recapture the Fun-n-Gun days of former coach Steve Spurrier. The Gators (8-3) were blown out by Alabama and lost closer games at LSU and South Carolina.

This past weekend, Georgia held on to the title in its own state with a 14-7 win over Georgia Tech, providing some much-needed momentum heading into Saturday night's championship game at the Georgia Dome.

At stake is yet another game in Atlanta: the Jan. 2 Sugar Bowl, which moved out of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

"This is for all the marbles," Minter said. "I think it's going to be a great game to watch. If I wasn't playing in this game, I would love to be watching it."