Georgia will feel at home

The Bulldogs take on LSU Saturday in the Georgia Dome.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The Georgia Bulldogs will climb aboard their buses Friday and head to an Atlanta-area hotel, just as they do before every home game.
The following day, they'll walk into the stadium through a cauldron of red-clad fans, just as they do between the hedges.
A neutral site? Hardly.
The 13th-ranked Bulldogs will clearly feel at home when they meet No. 3 LSU in Saturday's Southeastern Conference championship game at the Georgia Dome.
"I don't think neutral has anything to do with it," said LSU offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth. "This is a pure Georgia game."
LSU designated home team
While the Tigers are the designated home team, they know that most of the fans -- two-thirds or more, if past games are any indication -- will be wearing red and black.
"It's a Georgia home game, just like it was the last time we played them there," Whitworth said. "It's going to be fun, it's going to be a challenge. That's what we look forward to."
The SEC held its first two championships at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala., but the game moved to Atlanta's 70,000-seat indoor stadium in 1994 and has been there ever since. With a huge airport just 15 minutes away, plentiful hotel rooms within walking distance and a massive convention center right next door to the dome, the league has shown no inclination to consider another city for its signature event.
Atlanta had a true neutral feel for the first eight title games (even though it's closer and more convenient for fans of the Eastern Division winner). That all changed in 2002 when the Bulldogs reached the championship for the first time, transforming the Georgia Dome into Sanford Stadium West for a 30-3 rout of Arkansas.
Third trip for Georgia
Georgia (9-2) has kept up its winning ways, getting back to the championship game for the third time in four years. The dome-field advantage didn't have much impact in 2003, when LSU blew out the Bulldogs 34-13.
"We had a lot of Georgia fans there, but for some reason they weren't making any noise," said Ray Gant, a defensive lineman for the Bulldogs. "The LSU fans must have something in their water."
Indeed, most Georgia players said they barely noticed that significantly more fans were wearing red and black than gold and purple for the game two years ago. Maybe it was because LSU put together such a dominating performance on its way to claiming a share of the national championship. Maybe it was because the Tiger faithful were just a lot more raucous than their Bulldog counterparts.
Wild Tigers fans
Georgia safety Tra Battle is still trying to get the ringing out of his ears from playing at Tiger Stadium during the '03 regular season.
"If we were going against any other fans besides LSU fans, I think we would have an advantage," the junior said. "But when we went to LSU my freshman year, that was the most hostile environment I've ever been in my life. It was absolutely crazy. Even with the difference in the number of fans for this game, the LSU folks can hold their own. It probably equals out."
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