Advertisement
football Edit

Underdog hopes to knock off Big Dog in Saturday's SEC title game

After spraining an ankle in last Saturday's loss at Texas A&M, LSU QB Jayden Daniels practiced daily this week in preparation for Saturday's SEC championship game vs. Georgia in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
After spraining an ankle in last Saturday's loss at Texas A&M, LSU QB Jayden Daniels practiced daily this week in preparation for Saturday's SEC championship game vs. Georgia in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Courtesy of LSU Athletics)

If No. 14 LSU remains a 17½-point underdog when Saturday’s Southeastern Conference football championship game starts at 3 p.m. CST vs. No. 1 Georgia in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it will be the third largest betting spread in the game’s 31-year history.

And if the Western Division champion Tigers (9-3 overall, 6-2 SEC West) relish that role, it means they can play loose and fast with nothing to lose against the defending national champion and Eastern Division champion Bulldogs (12-0, 8-0 SEC East).

A week ago, this game had the potential to mean so much with then-No. 5 LSU on the cusp of a College Football Playoff berth in Brian Kelly’s first season as the Tigers’ head coach.

But LSU ran into desperate Texas A&M, trying to finish an awful seven-loss season. The Aggies, with healthy running back Devon Achane back in action, physically whipped the Tigers 38-23 in College Station as A&M ran for 274 yards.

LSU plummeted nine spots in the CFP ranking, moving to the outside looking in at the New Year’s Six bowl games prospects.

“We've played with traits over talent all year,” Kelly said. “Playing smart, having a great attention to detail, some of the focus that's necessary, for some reason those things weren't in place (vs. Texas A&M). We have to play with those traits.

“We can get beat, but we don't want to be beat with not bringing our very best. Unfortunately, it's one of those lessons to be learned in terms of how you need to prepare each and every week.”

The loss at A&M also came with a price as LSU starting quarterback Jayden Daniels sustained a sprained ankle. He spent the early part of the week in a walking boot and practiced the rest of the week.

The question is if Daniels will be healthy enough to play effectively, meaning using his quickness and legs to create plays and evade pass rushes.

The Arizona State transfer, who blossomed in the last half of the season, has accounted for 65.1 percent (3,390) of LSU’s total offense yards (5,206). He’s one of only two FBS QBs to have 800+ rushing yards and 2,000+ passing yards this year. Daniels has 824 rushing yards and 2,566 passing yards. He’s ranked No. 2 nationally in rushing yards (824) by a QB and he’s tied for No. 4 in rushing TDs with 11.

“Everybody you talk to, he's way faster than you envisioned,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said of Daniels. “He is athletic. He can go into super quick, hyper speed mode, run away from you, run around you. He stiff-arms guys. He's really athletic.

“But it's not like he's one of these guys that can't throw. He's a pocket passer, and he's very polished. He throws the ball really, really well.”

Daniels is going to need a lot of help from his offensive line facing a Georgia defense ranked No. 1 in the SEC in seven stat categories. The Bulldogs are also No. 1 nationally in scoring defense (11.3 points allowed per game) and second in total defense (270.7 ypg) and rushing defense (79.5 ypg).

Georgia’s two most impressive stat numbers – just eight sacks allowed by its O-line and 191 QB hurries from its defense – speaks well of the Bulldogs’ line of scrimmage dominance on both sides of the ball.

Georgia’s offense is an enigma, ranked third in the SEC and eighth nationally in total offense (488.8 ypg), yet it doesn’t have a running back or a receiver ranked in the top 10 in the league in rushing yards per game and receiving yards per game.

The Bulldogs, rely on running back-by-committee and a pair of tight ends including Brock Bowers (41 catches for 625 receiving yards and 4 TDs, 89 rushing yards and 3 TDs in 11 carries) who lines up all over the place.

While Georgia averages 38.2 points with quarterback Stetson Bennett (3,011 passing yards, 14 TDs, 6 interceptions and 169 rushing yards and 7 TDs on 40 carries) rarely making a mistake, it’s had unpredictable bouts of offensive inconsistency as of late. In the Bulldogs’ last three games – wins over Ole Miss (45-19), Kentucky (16-6) and Georgia Tech (37-14) – Georgia averaged 12 points in first halfs in which they led by just one possession.

“We really haven't had consistency in performance, maybe not as much as the team the year before has had,” Smart said.” But what they have had is resiliency, competitiveness, pridefulness, and response mechanism has been pretty positive.”

Kelly is familiar with Smart and Georgia. He was Notre Dame’s head coach when the Fighting Irish lost at home 20-19 to Georgia in 2017 and then lost 23-17 at Georgia in 2019.

"We're going to play a physical football team that has the style of its head coach,” Kelly said. “They're going to play great defense. They're going to be physical on both sides of the ball.

“You know what you're going to get. You're going to get a really well-coached football team, fundamentally sound, and they're going to play hard for four quarters and it's going to challenge your football team to play its very best as well.

“Nothing's going to be easy. You're going to have to earn everything. It doesn't get any better than this.”

In the previous 30 SEC championship games, the underdog has won just six times including LSU in 2001 when the 20th ranked Tigers as a 7½-point underdog stunned No. 2 Tennessee 31-20. That LSU team remains the only 3-loss SEC squad ever to win the league title game.

Can this 3-loss bunch of Tigers do it again?

“We had an upsetting season last year, a coaching change, everybody just giving us no credit,” LSU running back Josh Williams said. “They had no expectations for us this season.

“We deserve to be here (in the championship game). We put in the time and effort. We incorporated a lot of discipline aspects to the team. I believe that has paid off.”

Advertisement