'Dogs hunker down for Gators, Vols
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ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Georgia's 32 victories are the third most in the SEC during the past four years, but the Bulldogs don't have much to show for that success.
There have been three bowl trips in that span, culminated by Bulldogs' victories over Wisconsin, Virginia and Purdue.
But Georgia remains among six teams that haven't played in the SEC Championship Game and its last conference title was in 1982, when Herschel Walker carried the load for the Bulldogs and won the Heisman Trophy.
Florida and Tennessee have continued to frustrate the Bulldogs by blocking their path to the SEC East title.
Since the SEC expanded to 12 teams and split into divisions in 1992, Georgia is a combined 1-15 against the Gators and Volunteers, and 33-14-1 in other conference games.
"We've just got to play Florida and Tennessee a lot better," Georgia Coach Jim Donnan said. "They've dominated us."
Maybe 2000 is the season when Georgia finally will break through against Florida and Tennessee.
The Bulldogs return more starters (18) than the Gators (13) or Vols (10) and are led by All-SEC quarterback Quincy Carter.
"I've heard people say, 'If Georgia doesn't do it this year, they'll never do it,' " Donnan said. "I really think we're going to do it, eventually.
"I feel like we've laid a good foundation and done a lot of good things, so I don't think we can say it's now or never."
But it may be now or never for Carter, 22, who decided to return to Georgia for his junior season rather than make himself available for the NFL Draft or focus on his pro baseball career in the Chicago Cubs organization.
Georgia's lone victory against Florida or Tennessee in the past eight years came against the Gators, 37-17, in 1997, the year before Carter arrived in Athens.
"I'm not afraid to say that it boiled down to not winning against Florida and Tennessee -- that redirected my route back to college football," said Carter, who has thrown for 5,197 yards and 29 touchdowns the past two seasons. "There's a lot of unfinished business I want to accomplish at Georgia.
"I want to be a part of a possible championship season for this team."
Carter can imagine the cheers that would echo through Atlanta's Georgia Dome on Dec. 2 if the Bulldogs were the East's representative for ABC's prime time telecast.
"As a competitor and as a quarterback, I want to be in that big game," he said. "The game that's the only one on TV, and the whole world is watching."
The Bulldogs hope they've learned enough from their losses to Florida and Tennessee to turn those games around this season.
"I look at it like this: You have to learn how to fail in order to know how to succeed, and we definitely have failed against Tennessee and Florida," Georgia senior defensive tackle Richard Seymour said. "It's more of a mental approach at this point. We think we can beat them, and that's definitely an edge for us."
Carter said the Bulldogs may have been too uptight for the Florida and Tennessee games the past two years.
"When teams continue to beat you throughout the '90s, you get tensed up when you play them," he said. "You want to beat those teams a lot more than you want to beat the others.
"But we need to bring the Florida and Tennessee games back down to earth. If we do, I think it will help us relax and play better."
This article was published on Thursday, July 27, 2000
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