Game-of-the-Day: Georgia at Alabama

Georgia hasn't started any SEC season with two losses since 1993 when Ray Goff coached the Bulldogs. In fact, Mark Richt is 5-0 in his five SEC road openers since his arrival in 2001, and in SEC road games — not including Florida — Richt's Bulldogs have won 18 of 21 and his teams are 2-0 against Alabama.Alabama, now 2-0 in SEC play having dispatched Vandy and Arkansas on successive weekends, did start the SEC season 3-0 under Mike Shula in 2005, for Mike Dubose in 1999, for Gene Stallings in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and with Bill Curry at the helm in 1989, and for Ray Perkins in 1986. Of course, Coach Bryant's teams did that with regularity. At LSU, Saban's 2002 team started the season with a 3-0 record, which was the only time that happened in his five years in Baton Rouge. His National Championship team was 2-0 in SEC play before losing to Florida, their lone loss that season.

Listening to coach-speak this week really hasn't provided many clues either.

"I think our guys are getting excited for another SEC opponent," Richt said. "I think hearing that the ESPN Gameday crew will be there got them excited also, knowing that the whole country will be focused on our game. Also for us to have an early game last Saturday and then be able to go home and watch what happened in the Alabama-Arkansas game really got our guys excited about the great challenge that lies ahead of us."

Not missing a beat, Saban called the Bulldogs an outstanding team. "Mark Richt has done a fantastic job there in his tenure there of being consistently good, each and every year, game to game. They do a great job of executing on offense. They have a fine, young quarterback. They have good skill players and runners. Their defense is physical and fast. They are probably the fastest team and have more team speed than anybody we have played against so far. We want to try to get it right; it will take one of our best performances to play against an outstanding Georgia team here this week.”

Alabama exits a huge confidence-building win that saw the Crimson Tide blow two 21-point leads but came back to beat Arkansas in the final seconds. Georgia exits a game in which Richt was able to play three quarterbacks and a ton of people on both sides of the ball against Western Carolina. I'm not sure if Alabama is capabe of winning three straight SEC games just yet, and I'm not certain Georgia is ready to win a close SEC battle on the road. There was no way to expect the beating the Dawgs laid on Auburn last year at Jordan-Hare either, but the Crimson Tide seems to have regained the confidence it sorely lacked in 2006. I'll say that 'Bama hangs on and wins another close one by a field goal or less.

The last time the Gators ventured to Oxford in 2002, the Gators coached by Ron Zook lost to Eli Manning and the Rebels 17-14. In fact, Florida is 0-3 in its last three trips to the Magnolia State losing twice at Starkville.  Ole Miss beat the Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2003 as well. That oddity is just about the only thing Ole Miss has going for them, unless you want to add that this is youthful Florida's first road game of the season. Ah, but Ole Miss has given up yards and points in bushels so far in 2007, and the Gators' offense is lethal. This game might be a little closer than most people think, but the Gators should hand the Rebels their third loss in a row.

South Carolina at LSU

There's not much history in this match-up and LSU beat the Gamecocks two times when Saban piloted the Tigers in 2002 and 2003. LSU looks nearly invincible averaging 45.6 points per game and allowing just seven points in its first three contests. Wide receiver Early Doucet is hobbled with a strained groin, but LSU likely won't miss a beat if he can't go. On the other side of the ball, LSU has allowed an average of 131 yards per game and Spurrier's offense turned the ball over six times against S.C. State at home last weekend. That's hardly a cause for optimism for the Gamecocks.

On playing in front of a loud, hostile Tiger Stadium crowd, USC coach Steve Spurrier issued a backhanded compliment to his starting QB.

"It will be a very loud atmosphere, same as at Georgia, same as at Tennessee and same as at Florida. That really hasn't bothered our guys. In fact, after our game last week I said we're better in the loud ballparks because our quarterback can't audible. We had some bad audibles last week, went back and got sacked and fumbled."

On why his Gamecocks play well on the road, Spurrier said, "I don't have the answer for it, but somehow that appears to be the case for some of our guys. Not all of them. We have some guys that play really well and hard here at home. Some of our other guys seem a little nervous or uptight playing here at home. I don't have the answer for that, but as coaches we just need to keep coaching and get our guys relaxed to play the game. Sometimes we just have some players that don't look confident and don't act like they enjoy playing football. That's what we're working on - putting players on the field that act like they want to play."

That might mean something against some opponents, but it's not likely to matter in Baton Rouge.

This time, the first team to 60 points might win it. A vote for recent success means the Wildcats win this one!