from SI.com, Stewart Mandel
That Georgia could be the national title \"X-factor.\". It's not often a team completely reinvents itself mid-season, but the Dawgs appear to have done just that -- right down to their uniform colors. Following consecutive SEC smackdowns of both Florida (42-30) and Auburn (45-20), you'd never know this was the same Georgia team that was overly grateful just to win at Vanderbilt a month ago. The truth is, it's not the same team. Since that Vandy game, the Dawgs have found themselves both a swagger (thanks in large part to the previously laid-back Mark Richt's celebration challenge against the Gators) and an identity -- which is, to ride freshman RB Knowshown Moreno (160.5 yards per game and eight TDs over the past four games) and force turnovers (12 in four games).
Suddenly, 8-2 Georgia is the SEC's hottest team and could well spoil No. 1 LSU's national title hopes, and possibly even boost their own (they're already up to No. 8 in the polls with three more weeks of potential top-10 upsets ahead), were the two to meet in Atlanta on Dec. 1. However, the Dawgs, at 5-2 in the SEC, don't control their own destiny. They need Tennessee to lose a game to make that LSU matchup happen, because the Vols (7-3, 4-2 SEC), lest we forget, whipped Georgia 35-14 on Oct. 6. Never in a million years would one have guessed at the time that, a little more than a month later, the Dawgs would be 11 spots ahead of Tennessee in the rankings. Actually, come to think of it, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but neither has much of anything else this season. :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
