Georgia vs. Virginia Tech in former Peach Bowl

<p>Georgia will go bowling in Atlanta for the second year in a row, only this time it's the Chick-fil-A instead of the Sugar.</p><p>On Sunday, the Bulldogs were formally invited to the bowl formerly known as the Peach to face No. 14 Virginia Tech (10-2). The game will be held Dec. 30 at the Georgia Dome.</p><p>Georgia (8-4) enhanced its credentials by beating a pair of ranked teams, Auburn and Georgia Tech, in its last two regular-season games. The Bulldogs' strong finish came after four losses in five games, a stretch that included stunning losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky.</p><p>"Midway through the season, I didn't even think we would get a bowl," Georgia safety Tra Battle said. "Now, to get invited to a bowl such as this, I'm excited to the point of elation. I'm so proud of our team."</p><p>Georgia played a year ago in the Sugar Bowl, which was moved to Atlanta after New Orleans was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The Bulldogs came in as Southeastern Conference champion but lost to West Virginia 38-35.</p><p>Virginia Tech missed out on a shot at the Atlantic Coast Conference title with back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College. But the Hokies finished even stronger than Georgia, winning their final six games while allowing a total of only 23 points.</p><p>In fact, they led the nation in both scoring defense (9.3 points per game, including four shutouts) and total defense (221 yards per game).</p><p>Coach Frank Beamer isn't too worried about playing the Bulldogs just 75 miles from the Athens campus. Both teams were allotted 18,500 tickets in the 72,000-seat Georgia Dome, which should be sold out.</p><p>"We're so excited to be coming to Atlanta to play in a great bowl game," he said. "We'll bring a lot of folks with us, a lot of excited folks."</p><p>Looking back at last year's Sugar Bowl, Georgia coach Mark Richt believes his players lost a step during a longer-than-usual holiday break before they headed to Atlanta. West Virginia jumped out to a 28-0 lead by the opening minute of the second quarter, then withstood a comeback by the de facto home team.</p><p>"I know I did a poor job," Richt said. "We didn't condition ourselves as good as we should have last year. When we came back from the Christmas break, we had lost a lot of our conditioning."</p><p>Virginia Tech has faced the Bulldogs only two times. The schools split a pair of meetings in 1931 and '32.</p><p>The Hokies is one of only two schools to win 10 games the last three years, joining Southern Cal. Georgia had a streak of four straight 10-win seasons and top 10 finishes until this season, when the Bulldogs struggled at times defensively and had to break in a new quarterback, freshman Matthew Stafford.</p><p>"It was up and down, that's for sure," Richt said. "We started out 5-0. Then we lost four out of five. Not only did we lose four of five, we felt like we lost a lot of respect in the football world. We've been battling like heck just to get that respect back."</p><p>Georgia fell out of The Associated Press rankings during its midseason slump, but is on the verge of getting back in. The Bulldogs had the most votes among teams that didn't make the Top 25 in the final AP poll of the regular season.</p><p>"This is a chance to beat another highly ranked team," Richt said. "I'm sure we'll be the underdog for this game. But if we can find a way to win, hopefully we'll find ourselves back in the Top 25. That's a great motivation for us."</p>

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