Dogs’ tough road stretch begins at LSU

Baton Rouge, La. — By the time Georgia plays another football game in Sanford Stadium, America will have celebrated Thanksgiving and started Christmas shopping.

The Bulldogs today begin one of their longest, toughest stretches ever away from Athens: four SEC games in four states, starting with back-to-back showdowns against the past two national champions.

Georgia plays 2007 champ LSU in Tiger Stadium this afternoon, then 2006 champ Florida in Jacksonville Nov. 1. Games at Kentucky and Auburn follow before the Bulldogs have an open date and then return home for their regular-season finale against Georgia Tech on Nov. 29.

By that point, the Dogs will have either won or lost the SEC East.

If they win it, they will have done it the hard way.

The upcoming stretch will be just the second time in 43 years that Georgia has played four consecutive games away from Athens in a single season - and the first time in the BCS era any college football team has played the previous two national champions in consecutive weeks.

“We know the next two games are big ones,” Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “We’ve got to start with the first one.”

LSU and Georgia are the SEC’s two winningest teams since the start of the 2003 season with overall records of 61-11 and 57-15, respectively. Last season, they were Nos. 1 and 2 in the nation in the final Associated Press poll. This week, Georgia (6-1, 3-1 SEC) is ranked No. 7 by the BCS and LSU (5-1, 3-1) No. 13.

And as tough as today’s game looks, next week’s looms tougher, what with Florida (6-1, 3-1) having smacked LSU 51-21 on Oct. 11.

Georgia coach Mark Richt said he hasn’t given much thought to this season’s uneven schedule — five of the Dogs’ first seven games in Sanford Stadium, then 41 days between games there. The SEC portion of the schedule is drawn up by the league office, years in advance. Richt noted the annual game against Florida in Jacksonville — technically, Georgia is the “home” team there this year — often results in a stretch of late-season games outside Athens, although rarely this many.

“Just play whoever is on the schedule,” Richt said. “We don’t worry too much about it, really.”

The only time in the previous 42 years that Georgia played four consecutive games away from Athens was 2004. In that stretch, the Bulldogs beat Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky before losing to Auburn.

Before 2004, the Bulldogs had not played four consecutive out-of-town games in a single season since 1965, Vince Dooley’s second year as coach. In that stretch, the Dogs went 1-3 against Florida State, Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida.

A source of comfort for the Bulldogs as they face the upcoming stretch is their ridiculously good record on the road under Richt: 27-4 in opponents’ stadiums.

“It’s definitely weird being away from home for so long,” linebacker Rennie Curran said. “But looking at how we do on the road, how focused and determined we are, I’m not worried.”

A cautionary point, though: While compiling their stellar road record under Richt, the Bulldogs are 0-1 vs. LSU in Baton Rouge and 2-5 vs. Florida in “neutral” Jacksonville.

There’s nothing neutral about LSU’s Tiger Stadium. Richt still marvels at how the place reacted in 2003 — Georgia’s last visit.

“We threw a screen pass [to Tyson Browning] that went 97 yards and tied up the game with [four] minutes to go,” Richt recalled. “I was expecting a hush from the crowd. But all I began to hear was a chant: ‘L-S-U! L-S-U!’ It got louder and louder. It was the loudest I’ve ever heard a stadium.”

LSU rallied to win, as it usually does in Tiger Stadium.