Georgia vs. LSU By Matthew Zemek The Road to the Final Four? Try the road to greatness-it's the road Georgia and LSU are traveling, and their paths will intersect this Saturday in a game that has quickly and decisively usurped Tennessee-Auburn as the SEC inter-divisional game of the year. While Tennessee has been less than impressive, and Auburn has been more than disappointing, we've seen two different stories emerge in Athens and Baton Rouge. Georgia's airtight defense has been nothing short of overwhelming, and LSU has a boatload of speed on offense. Georgia gives indications that Brian VanGorder's unbelievable defensive unit can compensate for its limitations on the offensive line, and (only) a handful of clutch plays from Fred Gibson, Reggie Brown and David Greene. LSU offers a hint that quarterback Matt Mauck-once an awkward and decidedly unpolished passer-is not only the much-more-confident quarterback he became in the first half of last season, before an injury, but is actually the very cornerstone of the team, a dynamic force that puts the Bayou Bengals in very good stead as the curtain rises on the SEC season. Given Jason Campbell's struggles at Auburn, it seems as though the SEC West will be decided between Mauck and another Matt, the speedy Mr. Jones from Arkansas. That game is in Baton Rouge-just like this game, and just like the Auburn game will be as well for Nick Saban's boys. As for Georgia, the Dawgs have never lost a true SEC road game under the man they call "Reverend Coach" Mark Richt in Athens. Yes, Neyland Stadium will be imposing on Oct. 11, but with a win in Baton Rouge on Saturday, Richt's Road Rulers will find Knoxville much less intimidating, enough to make a huge difference in that game when it finally comes. Georgia looked defeat squarely in the face in road contests last year at South Carolina, Alabama and Auburn. The three games all offered the Dawgs chances to fold up the tent, a defining characteristic of the Ray Goff years and, at least in huge rivalry games, the Jim Donnan years. But David Pollack wouldn't allow Jawja to lose in Columbia; David Greene and Billy Bennett wouldn't stand for a loss to the Tide; and Michael Johnson's pluck-literally and figuratively-rescued the Dawgs on the Alabama Plains. Georgia is made of special stuff on the road, a testament to the eternal calm and poise of its leader, Richt, who never allows his players to panic. This remarkable string of road wins in the conference whose crowds, as a whole, are more passionate than any others in the land is proof of the noticeable and unmistakable transformation and elevation of Georgia Football under Richt. The beauty of Saturday's game against LSU is that this impressive feat-and the equally impressive resolve behind it-will get tested. It will get tested, fittingly, by the team that won the SEC title the year before Georgia did. Yes, it was those Tigers of the Cajun variety who made off with the hardware in 2001, in a year when no one expected Nick Saban's team-let alone any SEC West team-to do so. Now that Georgia has supplanted longtime powers Tennessee and Florida for SEC East supremacy (at least for one year; a win in this game, and that supremacy could be sustained for quite some time...), LSU has a perfect opportunity to cement itself as a legit top 10 program with a victory over the league's current standard bearer. LSU snuck up on people in 2001; a win here, however, and the Bayou Bengals will be big boys in the SEC and on the national college football scene. The home-loaded SEC slate will offer LSU a chance to go through the league undefeated. Georgia is surely the Tigers' toughest home test in 2003-partly because Georgia's really good, but partly because it's the Tigers' first home test. And that brings up an interesting little coincidence, doesn't it? On the same day as this game, Tennessee and Florida will play their traditional early-season pressure cooker. That game is so wrenching and mentally taxing for both programs not because it's a huge rivalry and an intra-divisional game, but because it's the first big SEC test for both teams. Well, what do we have here in Baton Rouge, then? We have two teams dreaming of the long-term league supremacy Tennessee and Florida enjoyed throughout the 1990s, and they're playing on the same day as the Vols and Gators. And ironically, these are the last two champions of the league, not the boys from Knoxville or Gainesville. The more you dwell on this game, the more you consider Georgia's road dominance, and the more you consider how LSU could get on a nice little roll at home in 2003-with Alabama being the only significant road test for the Tigers in SEC play-the more you realize just how huge this game is. It should be the main CBS game in the 3:30 Eastern time slot. (However, by the way, the Seattle CBS affiliate, KIRO-TV Channel 7, is pre-empting the Tennessee-Florida game to air children's programming... what a total outrage!) One could say this is exaggerated, overdramatized and excessive speculation. One could also say that emotion is a huge factor in college football. But it does seem legitimate to conclude that if Georgia can win yet another huge SEC road game, the Dawgs will have so much confidence that it will be really hard for Tennessee or any other league team to beat Georgia in a town not named Athens (and, of course, having to play Georgia in Athens would be tough enough in its own right). It also seems equally reasonable to say that if LSU passes this early-season test, the Tigers will "Geaux" a very long way in 2003. And if each team loses? Georgia's aura would be shattered (much like Ohio State's aura would be shattered), and LSU's confidence would be dealt a severe blow that would put the Tigers more on the defensive in future home games against Florida, Auburn and Arkansas. And oh, one other thing: they'd each have a loss in the SEC standings in September. Georgia and LSU: two teams that deserve to have the spotlight instead of Tennessee and Florida, and who are playing a mid-September game with the same pressures and long-term significance of the games the Vols and Gators used to play in the 90s. The winner could become the Next Really Big Thing in the SEC over an extended period of time. The loser will have a dogfight on its hands over the course of the rest of the season. One team will have the inside track to a second SEC title in the 21st Century, while the other will beat itself up on the inside and lament this loss when 2003 is all over but the shouting. Georgia and Reverend Richt's Road Rulers. LSU and Saban's Sultans of Speed. Head out on the highway, rev up your engines, and feel the need for drive-through speed as you make your way to Baton Rouge... and the road to greatness in the SEC.
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