Slack Leads Auburn Over Georgia, 20-10

Reggie Slack passed for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns as 9th-ranked Auburn knocked No. 17 Georgia out of the Southeastern Conference race and kept its title hopes alive with a 20-10 victory Saturday before 85,214, the largest crowd ever to watch a game in Alabama.

Slack completed 20 of 34 passes and Stacey Banley had a career-high 172 rushing yards, bettering his previous best of 157 yards against Alabama last year.

The Tigers, 9-1 overall and 5-1 in the SEC, can gain a share of the conference championship with No. 12 Louisiana State by beating Alabama in Birmingham on Nov. 25.

LSU clinched at least a share of the title earlier Saturday with a 20-3 victory over Mississippi State in its final conference game. If LSU and Auburn end the season in a tie, the Sugar Bowl will choose the league’s representative.

Auburn spoiled Georgia Coach Vince Dooley’s bid to become only the 10th coach in NCAA Division I history to win 200 games, using its best-in-the-nation defense to shut down the Georgia attack.

Georgia drove 85 yards on its first possession, scoring the initial first-half touchdown of the year on the Tigers when Wayne Johnson threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to John Thomas.

Slack got the Tigers even in the second quarter when he rolled left and lofted a 7-yard scoring pass to Lawyer Tillman.

Slack’s second scoring pass broke a 10-10 deadlock. The Tiger quarterback rolled left for this one, completing a 6-yarder to Walter Reeves.

Win Lyle had given the Tigers a 10-7 lead with a 44-yard field goal on the final play of the first half and kicked a 36-yarder early in the fourth quarter for a 20-10 advantage.

Georgia (7-3, 5-2) tied the score at 10-10 early in the third on John Kasay’s 47-yard field goal after Tim Worley had returned the second half kickoff 59 yards to the Auburn 41.

Danley, a sophomore, rushed for 172 yards in 38 carries.

The victory gave Auburn a 43-42-7 lead in the South’s oldest series, which began in 1892.

The Tiger defense, stingiest in the nation in yielding rushing yards and total yards, held Worley, the SEC’s leading rusher, to 63 yards in 15 carries.