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After bye week, Georgia hopes to rebound from loss

Oct 11, 2008 - 10:16 AM Tennessee (2-3) at (10) Georgia (4-1), 3:30 pm EDT

ATHENS, Georgia (Ticker) -- Georgia's bye week may have come at a good time. It gave the Bulldogs a chance to recover from the beating they received from Alabama.

Georgia, which dropped seven spots to No. 10 following a 41-30 loss to the Crimson Tide, hosts Tennessee on Saturday in a Southeastern Conference contest, the second of three straight home games for the Bulldogs.

The defeat to Alabama, which snapped Georgia's 11-game winning streak, was not as close as the score indicated. The Bulldogs trailed, 31-0, at the half. Alabama held sophomore Knowshon Moreno, the third-leading rusher in the SEC, to 34 yards, the second-lowest total of his career.

"It was good for us to have a few days to reflect and get over the grief a little bit and to refocus," Georgia coach Mark Richt said.

The Bulldogs (4-1, 1-1 SEC East) now find themselves behind surprising Vanderbilt, which emerged as the only unbeaten team in the SEC East following its win over Auburn last week.

"You hate to say you've got to refocus, but we do," Richt added. "I think we see where we are. We're still No. 10 in the nation. We're still very much in control of our destiny as far as the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference."

Georgia, the most-penalized team in the SEC coming into the Alabama game, was twice flagged for roughing-the-passer penalties in the first half.

"If we can play a more disciplined brand of football and continue to improve fundamentally, I think we can get right back on track," Richt said.

Before they were manhandled by Alabama, the Bulldogs' previous loss was a 35-14 defeat at Tennessee last season, a result that cost them a spot in the SEC championship.

The Bulldogs may have been the best team in the country at the end of the season, winning their final seven games, including a 41-10 rout of Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl.

But the loss to Tennessee kept the Bulldogs out of the SEC title game, since they also lost a tiebreaker to the Volunteers, who won the SEC East.

Georgia will look to rebound this week against a Tennessee team that is still searching for an identity. The Volunteers (2-3, 0-2 SEC East) took a breather from SEC play last week, but still struggled to get past Northern Illinois of the Football Championship Subdivision, 13-9.

Prior to that, however, Tennessee suffered back-to back conference losses to Florida and Auburn, falling to 1-3. Nick Stephens started at quarterback last Saturday for the Volunteers and completed 10-of-17 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown.