Tennessee Week: Three Keys Revisited

ATHENS - Josh Kendall's review of the three keys to a Georgia win over Tennessee.

Shockley stay straight

The Bulldog quarterback didn’t have a great game, two costly turnovers, but he never lost his poise. “The thing he did best was just being a field general, just being a solid rock in a hostile environment,” Coach Mark Richt said. “He didn’t flinch. He kept his poise, and everybody was confident that he’d be fine and we’d be fine.”

Get a quick start

Georgia didn’t come out of the gates on fire, but neither did Tennessee. The Bulldogs didn’t score until 17 seconds remained in the first quarter, but they had 13 points before the Vols got on the board.

Block somebody

Georgia’s offensive line won its competition with the Vols’ highly touted defensive front. The Bulldogs’ big men gave up only one sack (for a loss of 1 yard) and paved the way for 198 yards rushing.

Notable: Safety Greg Blue had 14 tackles against Tennessee, and many of them were open field stops against Gerald Riggs. “He did make some very sure tackles in the open field,” Richt said. “That’s probably his biggest improvement.” ... Richt became just the third opposing coach to win three straight games in Neyland Stadium, joining Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings. “To be able to win three times in a row is really pretty amazing, I guess,” he said. ... Richt expressed disappointment Sunday that Kregg Lumpkin didn’t get any carries against Tennessee. ... Fullback Brannan Southerland had 10 “de-cleater” blocks in the game.

Quotable: “I like playing under the lights, quite frankly. I think it’ll be tremendous exposure for us. We’re actually doing some recruiting on the West Coast, and we have some people in between to who will probably have a better chance of seeing us.” -- Richt on playing a nationally televised night game on ESPN2.

Injuries: Linebacker Tony Taylor (elbow) is out for the Vanderbilt game and the Oct. 22 Arkansas game. Defensive tackle Gerald Anderson (concussion) is doubtful for the Vanderbilt game. Defensive end Jeremy Lomax has decided to have season-ending surgery this week on a high ankle sprain he suffered three weeks ago.

Next: at Vanderbilt, Saturday, 7:15 p.m., ESPN2