GEORGIA FINALLY DOES IT
Monday 11/18/02
Finally… 20 years since their last title. Finally… after 10 years of divisional play and never making it to the championship game. Finally… against a team that has dominated them in those 20 years since their last title. Finally… after losing to their other nemesis this year and having that team breathing down their neck. Finally… after being down 14-3 and 21-10 in this all important game. Finally… after being down to one last shot on 4th and 15. Finally… The Georgia Bulldogs are SEC East champs.
It has been definitely a long and hard road over the years and even this season. Many people as I did expected them to lose to Auburn and for Florida to once again take the East. Many people like I did expected Auburn to move the ball, get the lead and play very good on both sides of the ball. Auburn did that. What most people including myself didn’t count on was the heart of a champion. We knew Georgia was good. We knew they had some great players. We knew they had pulled off some good wins. However after losing to Florida and seeing some dissension in the ranks, most of us wondered if Georgia really had what it takes. Well we know now they did.
After getting completely outplayed in the first half and getting down 14-3, they came sprinting out of the chutes in the second half and scored a TD. However it wasn’t going to be that easy. Auburn immediately matched that score and made it 21-10. That was when the Georgia defense made their stand. They were aided by Auburn’s All-SEC punter Damon Duval completely falling apart but some of his problems might have been started by Georgia pressure. Georgia held Auburn to a number of 3 and outs.
The offense was then able to get in position for it to come down to a miracle last play. Game MVP honors have to go to WR Michael Johnson who stepped up big-time for Terrence Edwards. I wrote in the picks for last week that somebody had to step up for Edwards and Johnson certainly did that. The great catch he made will certainly go down in Georgia history as one of the best. The Bulldogs will now face out-of-conference rival Georgia Tech before heading to Atlanta to try and win the overall SEC Title.
I wouldn’t give it to them yet. Everybody did that to Tennessee last year and they got beat. Who will Georgia play? Their victory over Auburn pretty much eliminates the Tigers. They still have a shot but a very long one. I think it now comes down to LSU and unbelievably Arkansas. If LSU beats Ole Miss and Arkansas beats Miss St (both teams should be favored) then they will play a winner-take-all game for the SEC West title in Little Rock the day after Thanskgiving. Right now I think I would have to take Arkansas in that game however both teams have got to win this coming weekend first.
Elsewhere… Bama absolutely annihilated LSU on the Bayou. Bama might be playing the best of any team in the SEC right now. They are of course on probation but will be pretty satisfied with a great season anyway. I still think they should have self-imposed a bowl ban last year and then they would probably be free next year of at least that part of the probation. I think Bama will find as Auburn did in 1994 that the second year of a postseason ban is much worse than the first. It really gets old especially if your team is good again. Well now it is time for the big end-of-season rivalries to start. Yes!!!