ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley spent most of last Saturday watching football. Sometimes, the watching turned into cheerleading.

Arizona State certainly was worth shouting about when it held an 18-point lead on No. 1-ranked Southern Cal.

"Oh, yeah," Shockley said. "You're always going to pull against the teams ahead of you in the polls."

The poll game is again fashionable in Athens, where the fifth-ranked, unbeaten Bulldogs see themselves as competing for a national title as well as a conference one.

Shockley knows all about that. The Bulldogs have finished as high as third nationally and in the top seven three times since he signed on.

The difference in this year's quest for national recognition is that Shockley is leading the way. He is no longer the relief pitcher for David Greene, no longer the loyal backup who chose to stick it out rather than transfer to a program that could virtually assure him of a starting position.

Being the No. 1 quarterback probably means as much to Shockley as any quarterback in college football. No wonder, he couldn't sleep before the season opener against Boise State. For three years, he had waited for that opportunity.

Now comes an even bigger opportunity, a showdown between top-10 teams Georgia and Tennessee, and Shockley is right in the middle of it, not on the periphery.

"It's one of these games I've been waiting for my whole career," he said. "I'm in a position to start. It's going to be nationally televised. It's one of the biggest games of the year."

He has sampled these kind of games but never started one. Greene was the starter and usually the closer. Shockley was, at best, the middle-inning reliever.

No matter what he did, his role never changed. Last year's UT game was proof of that.

With the Bulldogs down 10-0 and out of sync offensively, Shockley came off the bench and quickly drove them for their first touchdown, which came on a beautiful 24-yard pass from Shockley to Fred Gibson.

There was no encore. As superb as Shockley was in that one drive, Greene's track record of success was more than three seasons long. The Bulldogs had won an SEC championship with Greene at quarterback. They had beaten UT three times with Greene.

But they couldn't do it a fourth time, and when they came up short, you couldn't help but wonder what Shockley might have done.

"It was hard to come out," Shockley said. "It's always hard to come out of games, especially when things are going good. But Coach (Mark) Richt is a great coach. He knows what he's doing."

Spoken like a coach's son, which Shockley is. He was a consensus All-American at North Clayton High School in the Atlanta area. His father, Don Shockley, was his coach.

Shockley went from one sport to another in high school, excelling at all of them -- football, basketball, baseball and track. No one has ever questioned his athleticism.

"He's more consistent now," Georgia quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo said after Monday's practice. "His accuracy has really improved. And it's getting better every game."

Bobo knows something about accuracy. He set a Georgia record by completing 19 consecutive passes in a 33-6 victory over Wisconsin in the 1998 Outback Bowl.

"It (accuracy) is something we worked hard on in the spring and two-a-days," Bobo said. "He had to be more accurate and make good decisions. For the most part, he has done that."

Shockley, who completed only 43 percent of his passes the last two seasons, leads the SEC in pass efficiency. But his accuracy is not what most concerns opposing defenses. Shockley is an outstanding runner, strong enough to break tackles and fast enough to outrun them. He has the ability to make big plays as a passer or a runner.

UT already has faced several athletic quarterbacks, none of whom was any faster than Ole Miss' Micheal Spurlock. But Spurlock didn't have enough help.

LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell had running lanes against UT but didn't take them. UAB coach Watson Brown second-guessed himself after a 17-10 loss to UT, saying perhaps he should have run quarterback Darrell Hackney more.

In a game as important as this one, Georgia would be remiss in not relying on Shockley's athleticism as well as his newfound passing accuracy.

"We don't want to take away from his playmaking abilities," Bobo said. "We just want him to scramble in a smart way.

"Sometimes, in the past, he tried to do too much. Sometimes, there's nothing wrong with throwing the ball away and punting."

The temptation to do more was often irresistible for someone whose talent far exceeded his playing time. Now, he knows there will be another pass, another series.

It's his game to start and finish.