SEC Title Game.
Ian Fletcher
December 1, 2007

The SEC Championship game is the granddaddy of all Conference title games. The game, which started in 1992, is in its 16th year. It
was a result of conference expansion, which saw Arkansas and South Carolina become the first members added in SEC history. The first two games were played at Legion Field in Birmingham and the game has been played at the Georgia Dome ever since (1994).

Tennessee Volunteers (Overall: 9-3 SEC: 6-2) take on the Louisiana State Tigers (Overall: 10-2 SEC: 6-2).

This years game takes place with Georgia the highest ranking SEC team in all polls sitting at home watching, because they lost the head to head match-up with 14th ranked Tennessee 35-14.

Tennessee chosen at the pre-season SEC media days by media members to finish second in the east, was all but written off at the beginning of the season after losing by 14 points to California and 39 to Florida.

Tennessee has quietly finished off a season with grumblings about their head coach Phillip Fulmer not winning a SEC title since 1998 and has not played in the Championship game since 2001 losing to an LSU 31-20.

Tennessee enters this game with a 5 game winning streak, beating their opponents by a combine total of 79 points. It took Tennessee three-overtime to defeat Kentucky last weekend to get to the Championship game after jumping out to a 24-7 lead.

Erik Ainge set new career-highs last weekend for passing yards (397) and passing touchdowns (7) during Tennessee thrilling three-overtime triumph at Kentucky. Ainge needs just eight more completions to break Peyton Manning’s single-season school record of 287 set in 1997.

Arian Foster has 810 yards rushing, 245 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns in his last eight games.

Lucas Taylor leads the team with 71 catches for 975 yards.

Jerod Mayo led the team with a career-high 19 stops at Kentucky, including a sack and a TFL. He has 34 stops in the last two games.

Mayo leads the team with 112 tackles, followed by McCoy with 98 and Karl with 80.

Eric Berry has four interceptions and 207 INT return yards this season, which is a single-season school record.

LSU has been on a destiny to now where quickly. LSU pick by many to win the SEC Western division, the SEC Championship game, and the BCS Championship game is only playing for the SEC Championship game after losing in triple over-time to Arkansas 50-48.

LSU has a situation in which their coaches has used the school as a stepping stool to become head coach at other institution while getting ready for a Championship game.

ESPN is reporting that LSU head coach Les Miles will be introduce as the new head coach at Michigan a school that he is an alumni.

ESPN is also reporting that LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini will be named the head coach at Nebraska a school he coach at under Tom Osborne.

Why should LSU players even care about this game is if their coaches do not seem to care about them as players or respect them enough to wait until after the season is finish to interview for other jobs.

LSU starting quarterback Matt Flynn has an ailing right throwing shoulder and will not start, back-up Ryan Perrilloux will get his second start of the season. Perrilloux was being used as part of a two quarterback system until he was arrested before the Alabama game. Quarterback Matt Flynn has thrown for 2,233 yards and 17 scores.

Offensively, the Tigers have scored a school-record 482 points this year, which includes going over the 40-point mark a school-record seven times. LSU is averaging 40.2 points per game.

Running-back Jacob Hester leads the squad with 897 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns.

LSU wide-receiver Early Doucet moved past Dwayne Bowe into fourth place in school history with 158 catches for his career.

Defensively, safety Craig Steltz leads LSU in tackles with 89, five of which have gone for losses. Steltz also leads the SEC in with 6 interceptions, and 7 pass breakups.

Glenn Dorsey has recorded 61 tackles this year despite being constantly double and sometimes triple-teamed on just about every snap. Dorsey has also managed to recorded 11.5 tackles for losses, and six sacks.

Since 1998, Tennessee and LSU have been two of the four winningest teams in the SEC.

With all that is going on at LSU what will be their rallying cry this week. LSU has won on the last play of the game in 5 of their last 7 games.

Does the players even care anymore, there is no opportunity for a BCS National Championship game, your head coach Les Miles and defensive-coordinator Bo Pelini has basically told you we do not care about you, we are only concern about how fast we can exit this tough SEC conference and not take the blame for not meeting expectation of winning it all this season.

Tennessee on the other hand will look to dispel the notion that they do not belong in this game.

LSU, Tennessee which one will rise to the top of the great South Eastern Conference and claim the crown King of the Hill.

Ian Fletcher is our special correspondent at UF. He provides Gator coverage, SEC coverage and more.
You can contact Ian at By emailing here.