ATHENS, Ga.–They say you can’t teach an old Dawg new tricks, but the

Tennessee Volunteers have been doing just that for eight years now.

The Vols stormed (or, some would have had you believe, limped) into Sanford

Stadium on Saturday afternoon a team without its best offensive player and

with its best defensive player armed with one good, well, arm.

According to many so-called experts, the Vols had no offense, no

quarterback and no chance.

22-3. ‘Nuff said.

Georgia, for the second time in as many years, puffed up its chest and gave

the false impression that it was a good football team.

Unfortunately for the Dawgs and all of their obnoxious fans, the Vols

flattened them for the second time in two years.

Make that eight years.

A win over an LSU squad that is not even the best team in the SEC Western

Division prompted Dawg fans to conjure up memories of Herschel Walker,

Vince Dooley and the last time Georgia beat Tennessee, whenever that was

(1988, actually).

But it wasn’t just Georgia fans who felt that the Vols were a vulnerable

unit. Many Tennessee fans (you know who you are) moaned that the Vols’

season was over after Jamal Lewis went down and that they didn’t have a

chance between the hedges.

However, after an early interception, Tee Martin showed what kind of a

quarterback he is capable of being, and the Vol defense, led by linebacker

Al Wilson, completely destroyed the Bulldogs’ offensive game plan.

Quincy Carter, Georgia’s 21-year-old freshman quarterback and Chicago Cubs

reject, was about as accurate as a Mark Wohlers fastball, going a pathetic

14-for-37.

And as for the celebrated Champ Bailey, well, he proved to be about as

deadly as a hangnail, and not nearly as annoying.

The Vols have basically beaten Georgia every way a team can be beaten

during their eight-game winning streak, and yet Dawg fans continue to bark

that they’re better than the Vols. Or, as our guest columnist from Georgia

did last week, insult Tennessee’s fans and players.

But what can you really say when you haven’t beaten a team since your city

was actually a hip place?

Now the Vols, at 5-0 and with a two-game lead in the SEC East, can

concentrate on running the table, defending their SEC Championship and who

knows what after that.

The Dawgs, meanwhile, will whimper into the sunset in search of that giant

red fire hydrant that was rolled onto the field prior to the game. (Carter

probably couldn’t hit that, either, if you know what I mean.)

Then they’ll gear up for that big game with Tech and, if they’re lucky, the

Peach Bowl.

In the meantime–and this goes for both teams’ fans–remember that one

player, no matter how good, doesn’t make or break a team.

Unless that player is Freddie Kitchens. But that’s another story.