LSU Misses Chance; Georgia Wins, 23-22

Tenth-ranked Georgia escaped with a one-point victory for the second week in a row, beating Louisiana State, 23-22, Saturday in a Southeastern Conference game at Athens, Ga.

LSU scored with 18 seconds remaining and went for the victory, but Georgia’s Will Witherspoon batted away Josh Booty’s two-point conversion pass.

Booty, who bypassed college to spend five years in minor league baseball, almost made his first college start a memorable one.

With LSU trailing 23-16, Booty guided the Tigers from their 39 to the Georgia 28 before having a pass picked off in the end zone by Cory Robinson with 1:55 remaining.

Georgia, 4-0 and 2-0 in the SEC, was unable to run out the clock and LSU (2-2, 0-2) got the ball back at its 39 with 1:26 to play.

Booty passed to Ed Dangerfield for a 22-yard gain to the Georgia 39. After three incomplete passes, he connected with Reggie Robinson at the goal line for the touchdown with 18 seconds to play.

On the two-point try, Booty rolled to the right sideline, dodged a defender and had two open receivers on the far side of the field. But Witherspoon made a leaping deflection to save the Bulldogs.

“I thought we struggled moving the ball in the second half,” LSU Coach Gerry DiNardo said of his decision to go for two.

Georgia, favored by 9 1/2 points over LSU, defeated 28-point underdog Central Florida, 24-23, the previous Saturday because of a missed extra-point kick after what appeared to be a game-tying touchdown with 5:21 left to play.

No. 7 Tennessee 24, Auburn 0--Deon Grant’s interception return for a touchdown on the game’s first play started the Volunteers (3-1, 1-1) on their way as they shut out the Tigers (3-2, 1-2) at Knoxville, Tenn.

Grant had three interceptions, all in the first half, to tie a school record. Tennessee recorded its first shutout of Auburn in 14 meetings since 1980.

Travis Henry scored on runs of 34 yards and one yard to provide some offensive punch for the Volunteers, who gained 401 yards but came up empty on five trips inside the Auburn 23.

Tee Martin had three passes intercepted to end drives into Auburn territory, and a bad center snap recovered by Auburn’s Adlai Trone ended another.

No. 16 Mississippi State 42, Vanderbilt 14--The Bulldog defense had six sacks, two by Ellis Wyms, and forced three turnovers in beating the Commodores at Nashville.

Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-2) came in averaging 363 yards a game, but Mississippi State (5-0, 2-0) countered with the SEC’s stingiest defense and the sixth-best nationally, limiting the Commodores to 158 yards.

The teams combined for 23 penalties for 220 yards.

The Commodores, wearing gold jerseys for the first time since 1989, got off to a bad start as quarterback Greg Zolman fumbled the snap on the first play from scrimmage and Alvin McKinney recovered. Four plays later, Rod Gibson scored from three yards for a 6-0 lead. The Bulldogs scored the game’s first 32 points.

Kentucky 31, No. 20 Arkansas 20--Dusty Bonner threw for four touchdowns, two to Quentin McCord, as the Wildcats built a 21-0 first-half lead and held on to upset the Razorbacks at Lexington, Ky.

It was the Wildcats’ biggest win over a top 25 opponent since a 21-0 home victory over Mississippi in 1993.

Kentucky (3-2, 1-1) dominated Arkansas (2-2, 0-2). limiting the Razorbacks to 97 rushing yards, intercepting two passes, recovering a fumble and blocking a field-goal attempt by Tony Dodson, who also missed an extra-point attempt.

McCord, criticized by Coach Hal Mumme earlier in the week for failing to come up with big catches in a loss to Florida, responded with his biggest game of the season.

His touchdown receptions of 48 and 18 yards helped the Wildcats take their 21-0 lead.

Mississippi 36, South Carolina 10--Lou Holtz remained winless as Joe Gunn ran for 127 yards and Duce McAllister scored twice for the Rebels at Columbia, S.C.

The Gamecocks (0-5, 0-3) extended their losing streak, Division I-A’s longest, to 15 games. Never before has Holtz lost this many to open a season and only once, in 1969 and 1970 when he dropped seven in a row at William & Mary, has he gone this long without a victory.

The Rebels improved to 4-1, 2-1.