SEC EAST AT A GLANCE
Standings; SEC; Overall
South Carolina; 2-1; 3-1
Florida; 1-1; 2-1
Missouri; 0-0; 3-1
Tennessee; 0-0; 2-1
Georgia; 0-1; 2-1
Kentucky; 0-1; 2-1
Vanderbilt; 0-2; 1-3
Saturday’s games
Tennessee at Georgia, noon (ESPN)
Vanderbilt at Kentucky, noon (SEC Network)
Missouri at South Carolina, 7 pm (ESPN)
It should be an interesting Saturday in the SEC East. Defending champion Missouri visits preseason favorite South Carolina, while Georgia, currently the division’s highest-ranked team, hosts rebuilding Tennessee.
The outcomes could reveal a clue or two about the direction of the division race, although clarity likely is weeks away.
“It looks still wide open to me,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said this week. “If we don’t win, it won’t be very wide open for us, I can tell you that. But I think everybody feels that way.
“I doubt anything will be settled until maybe with one or two games to go. It might be Game 7 and 8 (in the eight-game SEC schedule) for everybody to figure out who is going to Atlanta (for the conference championship game), but we want to be in that mix.”
For Georgia, Saturday’s game is the entry point into the grind of the SEC schedule, starting a stretch of seven consecutive league games relieved only by an open date before playing Florida on Nov. 1.
After losing at South Carolina two weeks ago, the Bulldogs (2-1, 0-1 SEC) need a conference win badly enough for quarterback Hutson Mason to label the Tennessee game “the biggest we’ve had so far this season.” Although South Carolina (3-1, 2-1) lost its SEC opener to Texas A&M, the Gamecocks’ win over Georgia provides an East tiebreaker edge. But every indication is that the race will remain fluid.
“Right now it’s all up in the air,” Georgia wide receiver Michael Bennett said. “Hopefully South Carolina gets another loss in the SEC and like 2011 and 2012 (when UGA won the division despite losses to the Gamecocks) we keep winning and end up in Atlanta.”
South Carolina expects a tough game against Missouri (3-1, 0-0), which lost to Indiana last week.
“Most every game we play is probably going to go down to the wire,” South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said. “That’s sort of where we are right now.
“We’re not really concerned about the East or the SEC. We’re concerned about trying to look like a pretty good football team, which we have not been able to look like most of the year. Any time you have two kickoffs returned for touchdowns against you (by Vanderbilt last week), something’s missing somewhere. … We’ll worry about all that division stuff and SEC stuff later in the year — if we’re in position to worry about it.”
Georgia has beaten Tennessee (2-1, 0-0) the past four years and is favored by 17 points this time, but the teams’ past three meetings have been decided by eight points or less. A five-game win streak against the Volunteers would match Georgia’s longest in series history, achieved early last century. More important, it would get the 2014 Bulldogs an SEC victory.
“We’re 0-1 in the SEC, and by no means can we start 0-2,” Mason said.
Perceptions have fluctuated of the East teams. South Carolina was the media’s preseason pick to win the division, but tumbled in the polls after losing to A&M. Two weeks later, the Gamecocks defeated Georgia. Florida, picked third in the division, had to go to triple overtime at home to beat Kentucky, picked to finish last.
“Long season,” Georgia linebacker Amarlo Herrera said. “You’ve got to come prepared every time you play an SEC team.”
Whoever reaches Atlanta from the East figures to be an underdog against the West champ.
Six SEC West teams are in the top 17 of this week’s Associated Press poll: No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Auburn, No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 10 Ole Miss, No. 14 Mississippi State and No. 17 LSU. From the East, Georgia and South Carolina are ranked — Nos. 12 and 13, respectively.
The West is 3-0 vs. the East this season, winning each game by at least 21 points (A&M over South Carolina, Alabama over Florida and Ole Miss over Vanderbilt).
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