ATLANTA -- LSU must have had a premonition about the SEC championship game.

Football coach Les Miles and athletic director Skip Bertman flew to Dallas on Thursday night for a face-to-face meeting with Cotton Bowl officials. Nothing like advance planning, huh?

LSU officially became available for the Cotton Bowl on Saturday night in the Georgia Dome. Georgia made sure of it.

Quarterback D.J. Shockley hooked up with wide receiver Sean Bailey for 45- and 29-yard, first-quarter touchdown passes as the No. 13 Bulldogs started fast and never let up for a 34-14 victory in the SEC championship game.

With the victory, Georgia qualified for the Sugar Bowl. With the loss, No. 3 LSU can't even be sure of the Cotton Bowl, which supposedly has a strong interest in Alabama.

Miles said he accompanied Bertman on his trip to Dallas "on his night off" because he felt his 21 seniors deserved "a great bowl experience" if they didn't qualify for the Sugar Bowl.

"It had nothing to do with the game plan and had nothing to do with the expectations of this football game," he said. "We certainly came in here with the idea that we would win."

Georgia had other ideas, and it didn't take long to express them. With six minutes to play in the first quarter, it already has surpassed LSU's average for points allowed per game.

"It was 14-0 so fast, we never got into our rhythm offensively," Miles said.

Georgia's defense also didn't take long to send a message. On LSU's first offensive play, Georgia defensive end Will Thompson sacked quarterback JaMarcus Russell for a 14-yard loss.

"Once again, that was our senior leadership," said Georgia junior defensive end Quentin Moses. "Will set the tempo early on."

So did Shockley, who bided his time for three years as a backup to David Greene before finally becoming Georgia's starting quarterback as a senior.

"I came into this year just not wanting to let my teammates down," Shockley said. "There was a lot of hype as to whether I could get it done."

Shockley lost only one game as a starter this season, led the conference in pass efficiency and was named most valuable player in the championship game.

"I was very confident that D. J. would play well," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "At the beginning of the year, I said, 'Just respect the ball and just player your game.' "

Replacing Greene wasn't Georgia's only concern in preseason. It lost five other starters who made first- or second-team All-SEC. That's the main reason it was a consensus pick to finish behind both Tennessee and Florida in the SEC East.

Nonetheless, Richt said in preseason that he thought this team had as good of a chance for success as any of his other four teams.

"We lost a lot of marquee names, but I knew we had a lot of strong seniors," Richt said. "I knew we had leaders on both sides of the ball."

That was evident again Saturday night.

Led by All-American guard Max Jean-Gilles, the middle of Georgia's offensive line got the best of LSU defensive tackles Claude Wroten and Kyle Williams, who have dominated most of their competition. LSU's defensive line was overshadowed by Georgia's front four of Moses, Thompson, and senior tackles Kedric Golston and Gerald Anderson.

Georgia held LSU to 74 yards rushing and allowed only 14 completions in 30 passing attempts. They had five sacks and knocked Russell out of the game with a shoulder injury late in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs also capitalized on the carelessness of a mistake-prone LSU team, which ranks 11th in the SEC in turnover margin and last in penalties.

A blocked punt by Byron McClendon set up the third Georgia touchdown, Tim Jennings scored on a 15-yard interception return in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, and the Bulldogs sustained another scoring drive thanks to a series of LSU penalties.

"I think we shot ourselves in the foot too many times against a really good football team," Williams said. "I think we ran that well dry this year -- falling behind and coming back. Against this team, they weren't going to let us."