Georgia Back on Path to SEC East Title After Missouri's Upset of South Carolina
One thing became apparent during the first month of the season: The road to the SEC East title is littered with twists, turns, potholes and maybe a cliff or two...or 10.
The latest detour involved the two teams from Columbia, as Missouri charged back to beat South Carolina 21-20 in Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night. After a futile offensive effort from both sides, Missouri charged down the field on nine plays, and running back Russell Hansbrough plunged in from a yard out on 4th-and-goal with 1:36 for the win.
It was a shock to everybody, including Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel, whose team totaled just 280 yards on the night. Seth Boster of the Columbia Missourian provided Pinkel's comments:
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That sound you hear is applause coming from Athens, Georgia. Suddenly, Georgia—which lost to South Carolina in Week 3—has new life in the race for the SEC East title.
The Bulldogs won a shootout with Tennessee 35-32 earlier in the afternoon to notch their first SEC win of the season.
"It feels good to get that win," defensive back Aaron Davis said in postgame quotes released by Georgia. "It feels really good to get the first SEC win of the year, and hopefully we can use this to get the train rolling and get some more big wins along the way."
Does Georgia have problems?
Absolutely.
Its pass defense is awful, and as I wrote Saturday, quarterback Hutson Mason is going to have to improve if the Bulldogs are going to win the division.
Mason will, however, get receivers Justin Scott-Wesley and Malcolm Mitchell back at some point, which, at the very least, will give him more weapons to work with in addition to Michael Bennett and Chris Conley.
With Missouri's win over South Carolina, the Tigers momentarily took over "control" of the division. They also brought the Dawgs back to control of their own destiny in the division. Yes, that may not seem like much in one of the most uncertain divisions in college football, but it's certainly progress from where the Bulldogs were when they left South Carolina with their tails between their legs.
It was important for the Bulldogs that South Carolina had another loss on its resume—especially a home loss where the Gamecocks had won 18 straight in Williams-Brice coming into the season.
Now South Carolina's margin for error is razor-thin. With a road trip to Auburn still on the schedule—as well as games at Florida, at Kentucky and Tennessee at home—there isn't much wiggle room for head coach Steve Spurrier's crew.
That's huge for the Bulldogs, who still have to travel to Missouri, host Auburn and make a trip to Little Rock to play an Arkansas team that is far from the gimmie many thought it would be in August.
| 1 | Missouri | 1-0 | 4-1 |
| 2 | Florida | 1-1 | 2-1 |
| 3 | South Carolina | 2-2 | 3-2 |
| 4 | Georgia | 1-1 | 3-1 |
| 5 | Kentucky | 1-1 | 3-1 |
| 6 | Tennessee | 0-1 | 2-2 |
| 7 | Vanderbilt | 0-3 | 1-4 |
No, Georgia won't win the division unless the status quo changes. That is, of course, unless it stays the same for every team in the division.
Call it a division of "who wants it more" if you want, but it's more likely going to be decided by who wants to lose it least.
Georgia got some help from Missouri on Saturday night in South Carolina, and if it can just take one small step forward, it might be all the Bulldogs need to play in Atlanta in early December for the third time in the last four years.
Barrett Sallee is the Lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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