Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

It wasn’t too long ago that the Georgia-Tennessee game always seemed to play a key role in who won the Eastern Division championship.

	Christian Petersen/Getty Images
	Mark Richt and the Bulldogs are looking to bounce back after a tough loss to LSU.

Only once has the loser of this game played in the SEC championship game. In 2001, the Vols overcame the “hobnail boot” loss to get to Atlanta.

The two teams meet on Saturday in Neyland Stadium just hoping to get out of October with their football lives.

A loss wouldn’t go over well at either place, especially Georgia where the Bulldogs (3-2, 2-1) are still reeling from letting one get away last week at home against LSU.

“This is a game where both teams want to get back on track,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “We had a tough ballgame this last week. All of our games have been tough to this point. All of them have been close. To come out on the losing end after winning three thrillers was a little tough to swallow.

“The bottom line is that Tennessee isn’t going to feel sorry for us. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to buckle it up and be ready to go. Everything I’ve seen from our guys so far has been outstanding.”

At Tennessee, where Lane Kiffin is in Year 1 of trying to restore that program to prominence, the Vols (2-3, 0-2) are getting to that point this season where they need a reason to believe after three hard-fought losses.

If they can’t get the Bulldogs at home, they may well go 0-for-October. They get a bye next week before traveling to Alabama and then coming back home to face South Carolina on Halloween.

While it unraveled for the Vols last season after losing a couple of games, ultimately leading to Phillip Fulmer’s demise, junior safety Eric Berry said that’s not going to happen with this bunch.

	Joe Robbins/Getty Images
	Lane Kiffin's Vols need a victory after dropping three of their past four games.

“I feel like we are still together,” Berry said. “We kind of went off in our separate ways last year on offense and defense. There was some finger-pointing last year. A point of emphasis has been that we’re not going to have any finger-pointing. We are still together despite being 2-3. We’re still in a good position to win some games.

“It’s a long season, and anything can happen.”

Richt has only lost once at Neyland Stadium, his last visit. He’d won three in a row before losing 35-14 in 2007 in one of the flattest performances a Georgia team has had under him.

With the grumbling growing louder in the Bulldog Nation, the last thing he needs right now is to lose the first time he goes up against Kiffin.

After all, these two teams go at it pretty good on the recruiting trail and compete for a lot of the same players.

So while the SEC championship ramifications may not be what they have been for this rivalry, we’ll still find out a lot about the future of both programs come 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon.