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GAME NOTES: The Arizona State Sun Devils of the Pac-10 Conference and the Georgia Bulldogs of the SEC are set to collide in Athens on Saturday night.

Arizona State has beaten two inferior non-league opponents to open the 2009 campaign, so the team is undoubtedly eager to test itself against top-notch competition. Last weekend, the Sun Devils rolled to a 38-14 decision over UL- Monroe. After this weekend's game, ASU dives into a full slate of Pac-10 games under the guidance of head coach Dennis Erickson.

"That'll be a great experience for our players to go down to the South and play," said Erickson of this weekend's affair. "It's really special. I know our players are excited about getting down there."

As for Georgia, it survived a shootout in Fayetteville last weekend, knocking off Arkansas by a 52-41 final. The Bulldogs are now 2-1 overall, and they are a perfect 2-0 in SEC play. The lone loss came on the road against Oklahoma State in the season opener, but the club has been much better offensively since that shaky showing.

The Sun Devils and Bulldogs met for the first time last season, and Georgia won that game in Tempe by a 27-10 final.

Arizona State's offense didn't light it up against UL-Monroe last week, as the Sun Devils finished with 15 first downs and 338 total yards. They averaged just 3.5 yards per rushing attempt, a rather low figure, but the fact that they didn't commit a single turnover was impressive. Senior signal caller Danny Sullivan connected on 19-of-31 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown, and he also had a rushing score. Kyle Williams led all ASU receivers with eight catches for 129 yards, and Dimitri Nance rushed for two touchdowns.

Defensively, Arizona State permitted a mere 262 total yards to UL-Monroe. The Sun Devils came up with a pair of interceptions and posted a fumble recovery as well, and those takeaways were key to the victory.

One negative to point out from the ULM game is that ASU committed a high volume of penalties, and Erickson was not happy with the miscues.

"Too many penalties," said the coach. "That's ridiculous. I'll have to look at the tape tomorrow and see where they all were, how they were created and all that stuff, but that's disappointing. In a close football game when you have those kind of penalties, that's when you can get beat."

Through two outings, Sullivan has completed 57.1 percent of his passes, and while he has only one touchdown pass to his credit, he has yet to throw an interception. Nance has three rushing scores, Williams has made 13 catches, and the offense has moved the ball with balance. The leaders of the defense have been Brandon Magee, who has 3.5 TFLs, and Mike Nixon, who has intercepted three passes.

The Sun Devils will be without standout kicker Thomas Weber for the next month or so due to a torn tendon in the groin area of his kicking leg. Weber was nearly perfect on FGs last season (24-of-25) en route to winning Lou Groza Award. Freshman Bobby Wenzig is expected to handle the kicking duties in Weber's absence.

Georgia is averaging 34.3 ppg through two outings, and the team is posting a respectable 365.0 total yards of offense per tilt. Joe Cox has taken over at quarterback for Matthew Stafford, who was the top pick in the most recent NFL Draft. While not nearly as physically gifted as Stafford, Cox has connected on 63.3 percent of his passes for 738 yards and eight touchdowns with three interceptions. A.J. Green, the team's star receiver, has 17 catches for 275 yards and three touchdowns, while Richard Samuel paces the ground attack with 256 rushing yards and two scores.

Last weekend, the Bulldogs simply couldn't be stopped en route to 530 yards and 52 points against Arkansas. Cox connected on 18-of-25 passes for 375 yards with five touchdowns and only one interception. Samuel ran for 104 yards and a touchdown, and Green hauled in seven balls for 137 yards and two scores.

"Watching film we knew we could exploit them offensively with the deep pass," said flanker Michael Moore. "We went out and made plays."

The fact that Georgia is surrendering 34.0 ppg and 406.3 total ypg suggests that there is a ton of room for improvement on the defensive side of the ball. The Bulldogs have been solid against the run, yielding only 3.6 ypc, but the pass defense has been poor, permitting opposing quarterbacks to average 285.3 ypg and 13.6 yards per completion. There have only been two takeaways and four sacks registered by the 'Dawgs in 12 quarters of football.

Arkansas finished with 41 points and 485 total yards against Georgia, which simply cannot be proud of its defensive effort in that tilt. The Bulldogs were strong against the run, permitting just 77 yards, but they were victimized for 408 passing yards, a disappointing figure by any standards. Georgia did a good job on third downs, as Arkansas was only able to make good on 3-of-14 conversion attempts, but the overall showing was poor.

"We have a long way to go," said Rennie Curran, Georgia's standout linebacker. "We can't continue to give teams the long balls and think we're going to win big games."

Expect Georgia to get the job done at home this weekend, as the club will use a balanced offensive attack to hold off the Sun Devils. Still, the Bulldogs need to get better defensively if they hope to contend for the SEC title.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Georgia 34, Arizona State 24