Mark Richt

The Florida Gators have been pretty fast this season, but they've been faster.

Florida clinched the Southeastern Conference's East Division on Saturday by virtue of its 41-17 gouging of Georgia (more on gouging later) and Tennessee's 31-13 thumping of South Carolina. Urban Meyer's Gators became the fourth team to lock up a division before November since the league expanded to 12 members in 1992.

The '94 Gators were the quickest, clinching on Oct. 29, while the '93 Alabama Crimson Tide and the 2004 Auburn Tigers won SEC West titles on Oct. 30.

"I've always had such great respect for this conference and the teams in this conference and the history of this conference," Meyer said Sunday. "To represent the East in Atlanta is a great honor, but you won't hear much about that this week. We're not even going to be talking about it. We're going to concentrate on Vanderbilt."

Florida is 8-0 overall and 6-0 in SEC play, while everybody else in the East has at least three league losses. The Gators now have 10 East championships, more than Tennessee (five) and Georgia (three) combined.

Alabama can clinch its seventh SEC West championship and a rematch of last year's league title pairing with a win this week over visiting LSU.

Meyer promised a "very serious talk" with senior linebacker Brandon Spikes, who was caught on CBS cameras gouging the eyes of Georgia freshman tailback Washaun Ealey during a pileup midway through the third quarter. Georgia coach Mark Richt had not seen the incident as of late Sunday afternoon, but it had been brought to his attention.

"If there is anything at all in a ball game that we think is problematic when it comes to the rules, I always go to (SEC coordinator of officials) Rogers Redding," Richt said.

The Bulldogs dropped to 4-4 overall and 3-3 in league play after a dismal performance that included 87 penalty yards and four interceptions. Joe Cox had three of the interceptions and has 12 this season, which is tied for third nationally.

Georgia has gained five interceptions and recovered only one of 10 forced fumbles.

"I can promise you that we spend as much time or more than anybody in the country on recovering fumbles," Richt said, "but the balls that have come out, we've not been able to get on them. It's been a problem."

Richt said there could be lineup changes announced as early as Tuesday, but he did not offer specifics when asked whether freshman quarterback Aaron Murray would play this year. The Bulldogs face Tennessee Tech, which improved to 5-3 Saturday with a win over Tennessee State, in their first game at Sanford Stadium since Oct. 3.

"We've just got to keep fighting," sophomore cornerback Brandon Boykin said. "We've got a chance to go 8-4 or 9-4 with a bowl game, so we're going to get better from this."

Said Richt: "If we're truly men of integrity like we try to be, when things aren't going well, we need to work just as hard as when things are going well."

Odds and ends

Richt did not have any updates on receiver A.J. Green (ribs), left tackle Clint Boling (knee) and defensive end Justin Houston (elbow), who were injured during the fourth quarter. ... Tight end Aron White needed three stitches under his left eye after being poked during the sideline celebration once Georgia got within 14-10. ... Blair Walsh is 7-for-7 this season on field-goal attempts from beyond 40 yards. ... Watson Brown's staff at Tennessee Tech includes two former UTC defensive coordinators -- Will Holthouser (2000-02) and Billy Taylor (2005-07).