Shockley Is Center Stage for Georgia

D.J. Shockley stood in the middle of his grateful Georgia teammates, holding aloft the MVP trophy and celebrating a night that was five years in the making.

Shockley threw a pair of touchdown passes to Sean Bailey and ran for another score, leading No. 13 Georgia to its second Southeastern Conference championship in four years with a surprisingly easy 34-14 victory over third-ranked Louisiana State on Saturday night.

Even though Shockley completed only six of 12 passes for 112 yards, no one wearing red and black had any complaints about giving the game’s MVP award to a senior quarterback who waited so long for his chance.

“Guys like D.J. make this coaching profession worthwhile,” Georgia Coach Mark Richt said.

Shockley spent four years behind David Greene, the winningest quarterback in major college history. While many players in that predicament would have transferred -- and the thought certainly crossed Shockley’s mind after his redshirt freshman season -- he decided Georgia was where he wanted to be.

“This whole year has been reassuring that I did the right thing by staying here,” Shockley said. “I wouldn’t change anything about what I went through.”

The Bulldogs (10-2) were playing in Atlanta for the second week in a row, coming off a win over rival Georgia Tech. Now, they’ll have to make the 75-mile trip from their Athens campus a third straight time -- for the Sugar Bowl.

Normally, that game is played in New Orleans, but this isn’t a normal year. The Jan. 2 Sugar Bowl has been moved to the Georgia Dome, forced out of the Big Easy by the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

“The sugar is flowing now,” Shockley said.

LSU came into the day clinging to the faint hope of playing for the national championship, but nothing went right for the Tigers (10-2).

“We didn’t play our best,” first-year Coach Les Miles said. “But this football team certainly did achieve to win the Western Division championship. We started this season in a very difficult situation and the scenario changed each week.”

Georgia took control early, scoring two touchdowns before the game was nine minutes old.

“We wanted to start fast and carry over our momentum for the entire game,” Shockley said.

Bailey’s two touchdown receptions matched his production for the season.

Georgia shut down LSU’s ground attack, holding the Tigers to 74 yards.