University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Dominates LSU In SEC Championship
December 03, 2005 | Football
Dec. 3, 2005
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ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia won at its home away from home for the second week in a row. Now, the Bulldogs will have to make the short trip to Atlanta one more time -- for the transplanted Sugar Bowl.
D.J. Shockley threw two touchdown passes to Sean Bailey, Bryan McClendon set up another score with a blocked punt and No. 13 Georgia won its second Southeastern Conference championship in four years with a surprisingly easy 34-14 victory over third-ranked LSU on Saturday night.
Cheered on at the supposedly neutral site by a crowd dressed largely in red and black -- not surprising, considering the Georgia campus is only about 75 miles east of Atlanta -- the Bulldogs (10-2) earned the SEC's automatic berth in the Jan. 2 Sugar Bowl.
Normally, that would mean a trip to New Orleans, but this isn't a normal year. The Sugar Bowl has shifted to the Georgia Dome, forced out of the Big Easy by the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The Bulldogs were in Atlanta the previous week for a 14-7 victory over rival Georgia Tech. They were even more dominant at the Georgia Dome, defeating an LSU team that came into the day clinging to the faint hope of playing for the national championship.
Nothing went right for the Tigers (10-2).
Second-ranked Texas routed Colorado 70-3 in the Big 12 championship, which ended about 1 1/2 hours before Georgia-LSU kicked off. By the time the Tigers took the field, No. 1 Southern Cal was well on its way to a 66-19 rout of UCLA.
With the Rose Bowl settled, LSU couldn't even lock up a consolation BSC bid. The team that somehow kept its focus through all the distractions caused by Katrina -- one home game postponed, another moved to Arizona -- looked downright awful against the Bulldogs.
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