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Georgia hosts Tennessee in important SEC East matchup

Oct 3, 2006 - 11:49 PM No. 13 Tennessee (4-1) at No. 10 Georgia (5-0), 7:45 pm EDT

ATHENS, Georgia (Ticker) - Georgia may have won five of its last six meetings with Tennessee but certainly remembers the last matchup "Between the Hedges."

The 10th-ranked Bulldogs host the 13th-ranked Volunteers in a key Southeastern Conference contest Saturday.

Although Georgia has dominated the series of late, Tennessee posted a 19-14 triumph here two years ago, when the Bulldogs were ranked third in the country. Georgia returned the favor with a 27-14 triumph in Knoxville last year.

The Bulldogs (5-0, 2-0 SEC East) have played played relatively poorly the past couple games, having to rally for a 14-13 home victory over winless Colorado two weeks ago before posting a 14-9 triumph at Mississippi last Saturday.

Georgia leads the nation in scoring defense (6.8 points per game) but has struggled offensively since starting quarterback Joe Tereshinski III went down with a high ankle sprain against South Carolina on September 9. Tereshinski has gotten the nod over true freshman Matthew Stafford and redshirt freshman Joe Cox for this one.

"This week I am very confident that Joe (Tereshinski) should be our starter and that Stafford should be our No. 2," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Who knows what can happen by the end of the game? I am going to try and stop figuring everything out, but I am very comfortable and confident with Joe."

The Bulldogs will be without placekicker Brandon Coutu, who suffered a leg injury trying a new onside-kick technique in practice Thursday.

"Brandon hurt his kicking leg somewhere during the first couple periods of practice today," Richt said. "We don't know how severe it is, but we know it is severe enough to keep him out of at least this week's game. Andy Bailey will now be kicking our extra points and field goals against Tennessee."

Already having lost to Florida, Tennessee (4-1, 0-1 East) almost certainly would have no shot of reaching the SEC title game were it to lose to Georgia. The Vols have won back-to-back games since their 21-20 home loss to the Gators, routing Marshall and Memphis by a combined 74-14.

In last week's 41-7 triumph at Memphis, Erik Ainge threw for 324 yards and four touchdowns, including two to Jayson Swain.