OXFORD, Miss. A late night on the road in the Deep South became dangerously dicey but it didn't deter Georgia from heading into October with its perfect record still intact.
The No. 10 Bulldogs, starting their third different starting quarterback this season, were shutout in the first half for the second straight week.
Georgia still managed to improve to 5-0 for the third time in six seasons under coach Mark Richt after a less than impressive 14-9 victory over Ole Miss Saturday night.
Georgia mustered just 66 first half yards at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when Richt went with a plan to rotate first-time starter Joe Cox and Matthew Stafford every two possessions.
Georgia stuck with Stafford--who started the previous two games--for the entire second half after Georgia finally marched down field to start the third quarter with every single yard of a 54 yard scoring drive coming on running plays.
Kregg Lumpkin (13 rushes, career-high 100 yards) rushed for 45 yards on the drive on four carries, Stafford scrambled 8 yards for a first down to set up a 1-yard touchdown dive from fullback Brannan Southerland and Georgia finally took a 7-3 lead with 10:58 remaining in the third quarter.
Stafford (7 of 18 for 93 yards) was just 2 of 9 for 19 yards before completing a 32-yard pass down the left sideline to a leaping Demiko Goodman early in the fourth quarter to get the ball to the 2. Two plays later, Southerland surged in from a yard away with 14:02 remaining for his first multi-touchdown game in his career.
Senior Joe Tereshsinki, who hasn't played since sustaining a high ankle sprain Sept. 9 against South Carolina, was in uniform for the game Saturday night and would appear to be in good shape to regain his starting job.
Richt hinted in a national television appearance on ESPN2's Cold Pizza Friday that Tereshinski could be returning to the starting lineup.
"There's a good chance that he does, but I'm not going to make any promises there," Richt said.
The two previous times Georgia has started 5-0 under Richt came in 2002 and 2005 when the Bulldogs won SEC titles.
Georgia did it this time against an inviting schedule without a single ranked team and hardly looking like a title team offensively. The new month begins Saturday at Sanford Stadium with No. 15 Tennessee, fresh off a 41-7 spanking of Memphis, and ends with No. 5 Florida Oct. 28 in Jacksonville, Fla.
Maybe by then Georgia's quarterback situation will have been settled and its offense will find some rhythm.
Cox, the redshirt freshman who came off the bench and rallied Georgia to its 14-13 win against Colorado, completed 4 of 10 passes for 24 yards in four first half series.
He gave Georgia its third different starter this season, the same number in Richt's first five season and the most in a season for the Bulldogs since 1995.
Neither Stafford nor Cox could get anything going. Nearly 20 minutes into the game, they were a combined 3 of 12 for 15 yards and Georgia's offense averaged just 2.75 yards per play in the first half.
In a game that didn't kick off until 9:12 p.m. ET for a national televised broadcast, Georgia played down to its opponent for the second straight week.
Ole Miss had lost three in a row by a combined 92-24 to Missouri, Kentucky and Wake Forest.
Georgia caught some early breaks or might have trailed worse than 3-0 at halftime.
Ole Miss moved the ball well behind 50 first quarter yards from tailback BenJarvus Green-Ellis, but Georgia sacked Brent Schaeffer four times in the first half.
Cox went 2 of 5 for 9 yards before Ole Miss blocked a Gordon Ely Kelso punt and Kendrick Lewis recovered and returned 32 yards to the Georgia 5 yard line only to have the play wiped out by a holding call.
Ole Miss got its punt block for keeps when freshman Cassius Vaughn came through on the left side and Ole Miss got the ball at the Georgia 10 with 6:22 remaining.
Joshua Shene converted a 23 yard field goal with 4:12 left in the first half for a 3-0 lead.
On Stafford's second possession, he couldn't hook up with Mohamed Massaquoi, who appeared to drop both passes including one for 35 yards. The next play Stafford nearly was picked off by cornerback Nate Banks.
Ole Miss cut Georgia's lead to 14-9 with 6:17 remaining when Schaeffer hit Dexter McCluster for a 49-yard touchdown. Tra Battle knocked the ball out of his hands at the end of the play, but a review did not overturn the touchdown call. The two-point conversion pass to Robert Lane was incomplete.
Georgia snuffed out Ole Miss' chances Paul Oliver picked off a Schaeffer pass with 1:32 remaining and returned it 30 yards to the Ole Miss' 33.
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