Georgia winning, dropping The SEC generally is considered the nation’s top college football conference, but that perception isn’t helping Georgia right now.

Georgia is off to a 3-0 start, but has dropped from No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press and USA Today polls to No. 3 this week.

After the Bulldogs opened with a 45-21 victory over Georgia Southern, they fell to No. 2 in both polls when Southern Cal moved up to No. 1 on the strength of winning 52-7 at Virginia.

The Trojans stayed No. 1 this week with a 35-3 pounding of Ohio State and Oklahoma passed Georgia for the No. 2 spot in both polls. The Sooners won 55-14 at Washington while the Bulldogs hung on for a 14-7 victory at South Carolina.

Georgia is the first preseason No. 1 team to drop two spots in the polls despite starting 3-0 since Oklahoma in 1985.

“I’m not surprised,” Bulldogs Coach Mark Richt said. “You’ve seen this happen before. Everybody kind of wants to settle in and see where everybody thinks everybody belongs.

“ It’s hard. Shoot, I’m a voter, too [in the coaches’ poll ]. It’s hard to know where to put everybody.” The Bulldogs will have plenty more chances to impress the voters thanks to a killer schedule that Saturday features a road game at Arizona State.

When Georgia resumes SEC play, games await against No. 4 Florida, No. 6 LSU, No. 9 Alabama, No. 10 Auburn and Tennessee. Plus there’s Georgia’s instate rivalry game with Georgia Tech. If the Bulldogs can go 13-0, including a victory in the SEC Championship Game, it’s difficult to imagine them being left out of the BCS title game, though it happened to Auburn in 2004 when the Tigers were third in the polls behind USC and Oklahoma. “I think our players are thankful. I think our players are happy. I’m happy,” Richt said after the South Carolina game. “I can’t control the voters. “ We’re going to play so many big games, I don’t think it’s going to bite us in the long run. The bottom line is we won this game.” First with five This week the SEC became the first conference in the 72-year history of The Associated Press poll to have five teams in the top 10 — No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Florida, No. 6 LSU, No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Auburn. It will be tough for LSU and Auburn to both stay in the top 10 because they play each other Saturday, and the SEC’s other top 10 teams face road games, with Florida at Tennessee, Georgia at Arizona State and Alabama at Arkansas.

SEC & NFL Opening day NFL rosters included 259 players from the SEC, which led all conferences. Georgia’s 36 NFL players led the SEC, followed by LSU (35 ), Tennessee (34 ), Florida (30 ), Auburn (27 ), Alabama (18 ), Arkansas and Mississippi State (16 each ), South Carolina (15 ), Ole Miss (14 ), Vanderbilt (10 ) and Kentucky (8 ). Georgia ranked third among all schools behind Miami (44 ) and Florida State (37 ).

Glad that’s over Georgia finished 11-2 and No. 2 in the national polls last season, but a 16-12 home loss to South Carolina in the SEC opener ultimately cost the Bulldogs a shot at the conference title and possibly a chance to play for the national title. So it was a relief for the Bulldogs to hang on for a 14-7 victory at South Carolina and start SEC play 1-0. “Now we don’t have to worry about them,” Georgia senior defensive tackle Corvey Irvin said. “They ruined a lot of our dreams last year. They stopped us from going to the SEC Championship Game and the national championship game, but they’re behind us now.” Big foot A 77-yard punt by Georgia’s Brian Mimbs that pinned South Carolina at its 11 midway through the fourth quarter helped the Bulldogs maintain their 14-7 lead. “I haven’t had one feel that good off my foot ever, not even in practice,” said Mimbs, a senior who had a 66-yard punt against Tennessee last year. “It was a good time to hit one like that. I couldn’t have drawn it up any better. “ I hardly felt it come off my foot.” GameDay coming ESPN’s GameDay crew of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit will do their show Saturday from Auburn, Ala., where Auburn plays host to LSU in a game that will go a long way toward deciding the SEC West title.

Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville said it will be a plus for recruiting to have the added excitement of GameDay on campus.

“This is a big recruiting weekend for us,” Tuberville said. “We’ll have six or seven officialvisit guys.

“ It’s a great time to sell your program, and we’ve used that over the years. ... It’s good to get the extra exposure.” GameDay is visiting Auburn for the first time in two years and the fifth time overall. What about Kodi ?

Watching Auburn’s new Spread offense struggle in the Tigers’ 3-2 victory at Mississippi State begged the question of why the coaches didn’t at least give backup quarterback Kodi Burns a chance.

Burns, a sophomore from Fort Smith Northside, watched from the bench as junior starter Chris Todd took every snap.

Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville, the SEC’s most media savvy coach, anticipated the question about Burns and discussed the situation in his postgame comments before being asked about it.

“I know everybody wonders why Kodi didn’t play,” Tuberville said. “A lot of that had to do with me.” Tuberville said he didn’t want to put Burns, who started the opener but has played just six snaps in the past two games, in a bad situation with his back against the wall.

“I want it to be a positive note when he goes back in the game,” Tuberville said. “He was ready to go. He’s a team player. And we’ve got to find the right situation. “ His time is going to come.” Miles ready to rock Listening to LSU Coach Les Miles talk about his team’s game at Auburn, it sounds as if he’s ready to get on the field and play.

“I think veteran teams really play pretty well on the road, I really do,” said Miles, who played for Bo Schembechler at Michigan. “I just like the challenge to be honest with you.

“ I’ve never felt like there was any superstition or issue. I’ve always kind of enjoyed, certainly as a player, taking the field in an opponent’s stadium where everybody wanted us guys to not have success, and somehow you found a way to win. “ That always was an enjoyable piece to me, all the way back to junior high school and high school. It’s just fun to go in somebody’s stadium and play well, play as a team, play smart, play aggressive, think of contact and get a point more than the other guys.” Beckwith out LSU senior middle linebacker Darry Beckwith, a three-year starter, will miss the Auburn game because of a knee injury. “Certainly experience is something you can’t measure,” Tigers Coach Les Miles said. “This team has enjoyed him being in the center of the defense.” Junior Jacob Cutrera will replace Beckwith. “We’re fortunate to have talent there,” Miles said.

Alexander back LSU senior defensive tackle Charles Alexander, who missed all but the first three games last season after tearing knee ligaments against Middle Tennessee, made his return in the Tigers’ 41-3 victory over North Texas last week and had two tackles. “It was a dream come true,” Alexander said. “I’ve been waiting for a year to get back into Tiger Stadium. There were a lot of emotions running through me before the game. “ I shed tears of joy because of the past year. I’m ready to have a dominating performance in Auburn.” Dynamic duo Tennessee got big games from receivers Gerald Jones and Lucas Taylor in beating Alabama-Birmingham 35-3. Jones, a sophomore, caught two touchdown passes. Taylor had nine receptions for 132 yards. “We call ourselves ‘Batman and Robin,’” Jones said. “He’s Batman. I’m Robin. He calls the shots. I’m just the sidekick.” Tested by Miami Florida offensive line coach Steve Addazio said his group should be ready for Tennessee after seeing a variety of blitz packages in the Gators’ 26-3 victory over Miami. “Sometimes, you can get lulled to sleep early,” Addazio said of what can happen if a team isn’t tested before beginning SEC play. The Hurricanes forced Florida quarterback Tim Tebow to scramble out of the pocket at times.

“Some mental mistakes by some of our players,” Gators senior offensive tackle Jason Watkins. “When one person on the line messes up, it makes us all look bad.” Watkins said there was “only one play where we got blown off the ball” against the Hurricanes.

“We’ve got plenty of toughness,” Addazio said. “I just want to see... five guys fire on all cylinders. So you want to get as many plays as you can executing at a high level.” Two-minute drill Alabama’s Javier Arenas, Auburn’s Robert Dunn, Ole Miss’ Marshay Green, LSU’s Trindon Holliday, Florida’s Brandon James and Alabama’s Chris Rogers have returned punts for touchdowns this season. Rogers’ return, of 17 yards, occurred on a blocked punt. Auburn’s 3-2 victory at Mississippi State marked the first time the Tigers had won a game by scoring only three points since they won 3-0 at Miami on Oct. 4, 1974. The last time a 3-2 final involved teams from what now are known as the BCS conferences was in 1965, when Clemson beat Duke.

Georgia is 26-4 in road games since 2001, but that doesn’t count games against Florida played at a neutral site in Jacksonville, Fla. Information for this report was contributed by SEC beat writers. GAME OF THE WEEK NO. 6 LSU AT NO. 10 AUBURN 6: 45 p.m. SATURDAY, ESPN The past four Auburn-LSU games have been decided by an average of 3. 5 points and gone down to the final seconds, with each team winning twice. Expect another close, low-scoring game, but with a little more offense than Auburn’s 3-2 victory over Mississippi State last week.

BY THE NUMBERS 6 Consecutive SEC losses for South Carolina, including an 0-2 start this season 3-46 Third-down conversions and attempts by Auburn’s first three opponents OVERHEARD “I can say with all honesty that my gut has churned more in this series and really on this field than any other time since I’ve been at Georgia.” — Coach Mark Richt after his Bulldogs won 14-7 at South Carolina “I feel like that was the worst game ever, that I’ve been in. The simple fact is we couldn’t get things done, and they were trying to run up the score.” — Tennessee defensive tackle Demonte Bolden on the Vols’ 59-20 loss at Florida last year “It was a total team effort on offense not scoring any points.” — Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville after the Tigers’ 3-2 victory at Mississippi State