College football

'Survivor: SEC' - see who emerges Saturday

LSU overcame a hurricane and Georgia battled low expectations and QB's injury to reach the title game.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published November 30, 2005

GAINESVILLE - Before LSU had ever played a game this year, first-year coach Les Miles felt like he had been through half a season. By the midpoint, it felt like the end of the year.

So it goes when you begin with a natural disaster and the postponement of the opener, spend two weeks trying to help players locate and house displaced family members, then play an entire season without a break.

But 11 games in 11 weeks later, LSU has navigated the road blocks and detours on the way to the SEC Championship Game.

"It seems like it's been a long, long year," offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth said "It's been long, but it's been fun and it's been one we'll always remember. What we'll remember most about this season is the character this team has shown as well as their play."

Hurricane Katrina sent thousands of evacuees to Baton Rouge, displaced friends and family of players and disrupted the season. But instead of ripping the Tigers apart, it made them more determined.

"The team's focus has been tested," Miles said. "At the onset of the season and really throughout the season with games that were scheduled and postponed, home games that were suddenly away games, games that were going to be played on Saturday that were played on Monday, then the next game played on Saturday. An open week that suddenly had an opponent in it when you needed an open week late in the year. This team has unusual focus."

The Tigers (10-1) will face a Georgia team that also has had a season of unusual twists. The Bulldogs (9-2), who lost the bulk of their marquee players from last season, were expected to finish no higher than third in the SEC East. Georgia began the season 7-0, then lost starting quarterback D.J. Shockley, and its big rivalry game to Florida in successive weeks.

The Bulldogs lost their next game to Auburn, but a Florida loss to South Carolina and a win over Kentucky landed Georgia in its third title game in the past four years.

Tennessee and Florida were the preseason favorites, a snub that didn't sit well with the Bulldogs.

"Coming into the year we used all of that as a team for our motivation to get better," Shockley said. "We decided, "let's not let what people said in the paper really depict how we're going to play."'

Coach Mark Richt isn't surprised it's his team playing for the title.

"I felt like we had as good a chance as any other year since I've been here," Richt said. "I knew we had some good senior leadership. And I really felt like Shockley was going to come through for us. I'd seen him enough at practices to believe that he would do well. We had a good bit of veterans up front on both sides of the ball."

The game will feature two of the league's marquee quarterbacks, Shockley and JaMarcus Russell, two of the top defenses, and stellar special teams.

LSU's game against Tennessee was postponed two days due to a second hurricane; it moved the game from a Saturday to Monday. The Vols' come-from-behind win is LSU's only blemish.

"Certainly if you look back you'd like to think if it was a different start, this could well be an undefeated LSU team," Miles said. "But this team has a great perspective and I don't think they've spent a lot of time looking back."

The last time the two teams met, LSU lost to then-No. 3 Georgia 45-16. In 2003, the Tigers' co-national championship season, they defeated Georgia twice - once during the regular season, the other a 34-13 win in the SEC championship. The players said they expect a much closer contest Saturday night.

"The intensity, especially at this stage now the SEC championship, no team is going to back down because it's worth all the marbles," Georgia's DeMario Minter said. "I think this is going to be a great game to watch. If I wasn't playing, I'd love to watch this game because I know it's going to be a hard-fought game to the end."

[Last modified November 30, 2005, 02:15:38]