When South Carolina and Florida State collide in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, it will match up one team led by a legend against another program moving on from a legend.

The Gamecocks of the SEC and the Seminoles of the ACC have been two of the bigger storylines in southern college football this season. No. 20-ranked South Carolina (9-4) finally has reached the upper echelon of the SEC under Steve Spurrier, topping then top-ranked and defending national champion Alabama en route to winning the SEC East for the first time in school history.

Florida State (9-4), which faced an offseason of swirling controversy after showing longtime coach Bobby Bowden the door, thrived in its first season under Jimbo Fisher. The No. 23-ranked Seminoles won the ACC Atlantic Division title in what some thought might be a rebuilding season.

South Carolina brings two of the top skill players in the south to the game in freshman running back Marcus Lattimore (1,198 yards, 17 touchdowns) and sophomore wide receiver Alshon Jeffery (1,387 yards receiving, nine touchdowns). Defensively, South Carolina finished at the top of the SEC in rushing defense and sacks.

Florida State led the country in sacks and gave up just 19.8 points per game. Quarterback Christian Ponder, who did not start in the ACC Championship Game due to an injury, has passed for 2,038 yards and 20 touchdowns. Chris Thompson leads the rushing attack with 699 yards and five touchdowns.

One interesting aspect of the game: it will be just the third time the Gamecocks have played indoors in their history, but their second in a row in the Georgia Dome (after last week’s SEC Championship Game).

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Ryan Williams kept running, Virginia Tech kept scoring and Tennessee’s struggles in the Georgia Dome continued.

Williams rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns, sparking the Hokies past the Volunteers 37-14 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl at the Georgia Dome on New Year’s Eve.

As the hours ran out on 2009, Williams capped a season during which he became Virginia Tech’s single-season rushing leader (1,655 yards). His 21 rushing touchdowns and 22 total touchdowns set Atlantic Coast Conference records, and the win gave the ACC some bragging rights over the rival Southeastern Conference.

For Tennessee, which surprised many by finishing second in the SEC East, it was a sour ending to a stronger-than-expected season. The Vols committed two costly turnovers that led to 10 points. UT also dropped a touchdown pass, and its top running back Montario Hardesty mustered just 39 yards rushing.

The Hokies outrushed Tennessee 229-5, as the Vols lost their sixth consecutive contest in the Georgia Dome (three SEC title games, three Chick-fil-A Bowls).

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In 1998, Tennessee marched into the Georgia Dome for the SEC championship game, and marched out with a 24-14 victory over Mississippi State. The victory helped propel the Vols to the national championship.

On the final day of the next decade, the Vols hope to do something they haven’t done since that early December day 11 years ago: win at the corner of Northside Drive and Simpson Street in downtown Atlanta.

In five games inside the Georgia Dome since winning that SEC title game, the Vols are 0-5. Three of the losses have come in SEC title games, and two of the losses occurred in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

The Vols are back in the Chick-fil-A Bowl this year, facing Virginia Tech on New Year’s Eve. Tennessee, a surprise runner-up in the SEC East, hopes to parlay the bowl matchup against the Hokies into a victory that would give Tennessee a big boost heading into the offseason.

It also would end a frustrating streak of defeats in Atlanta for the orange and white.

Three years after winning that SEC title game during their national championship march, the Vols made it to the conference championship game, losing to LSU in 2001, 31-20. One year and four weeks later, the Vols were back in the Dome for the Chick-fil-A Bowl, losing 30-3 to Maryland in an ugly loss.

Tennessee made it back to the Chick-fil-A Bowl the next season, losing on Jan. 2, 2004, to Clemson, 27-14. Then came a frustrating 38-28 loss in the SEC title game in 2004 to Auburn, and a close 21-14 defeat to LSU in the 2007 SEC championship.

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Lane Kiffin is pretty pleased with Tenneseee’s preparations for its Chick-fil-A Bowl matchup with Virginia Tech.

So much so, the first-year Vols’ coach decided Monday that practice on Tuesday wasn’t necessary.

Kiffin told his happy player Monday that they were getting an extra day off, as the Vols get ready for the matchup with the Hokies, on New Year’s Eve at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Worried about the risk of injuries in trying to squeeze out one more practice, and happy with the progress the Vols have made were the two factors Kiffin cited in canning Tuesday’s workout, according to published reports.

Tennessee, a surprise runner-up to Florida in the SEC East, will resume practice on Saturday at a suburban Atlanta high school. Virginia Tech will work out at ACC rival Georgia Tech. Both teams then move into the Georgia Dome next week to get acclimated with the facility where they will meet on Dec. 31.

The Vols haven’t played since a 30-24 overtime win at Kentucky on Nov. 28, a victory that allowed Tennessee to conclude the regular season with five wins in its final seven contests. A bowl victory over Virginia Tech would be a huge springboard into recruiting season, especially with the game in Atlanta, an area Kiffin publicly has stated more than once where he hopes to make inroads on the recruiting trail.

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In the end, Bud Foster couldn’t leave the school he helped build into a national power.

Getting some extra change out of the deal didn’t hurt, either.

Foster, the longtime Virginia Tech defensive coordinator, thought about the open coordinator’s position at the University of Georgia. But after consideration, Foster withdrew from the running to be Mark Richt’s next DC, opting instead to stay with Frank Beamer and continue running the Hokies’ defense.

According to published reports, the school will rework Foster’s contract, an adjustment that will include a raise in pay for the man who has called the shots for the VT defense since arriving with Beamer from Murray State in 1987. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, published reports stated, but it’s believed to include a five-year extension that would keep Foster in Blacksburg through 2014.

Virginia Tech ranked No. 14 in the nation in total defense this season, ending a streak of five consecutive seasons where Foster directed the Hokies to a top-seven finish in the nation defensively.

Virginia Tech faces Tennessee in a matchup of ACC vs. SEC in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, New Year’s Eve at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. 

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It’s the ninth-oldest bowl game, and has worked its way from an outdoor game that drew just a little bit of attention into a New Year’s Eve college football tradition.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl has changed names (it was known as the Peach Bowl) and venues (it was played for years at old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium), and it has grown in statue and importance through the years.

The first Chick-fil-A Bowl, then known as the Peach Bowl, was held on Dec. 30, 1968. LSU knocked off Florida State 31-27 in front of 35,206 fans at open-air Atlanta Stadium. The bowl purse for the inaugural game: $460,000.

My, how things have changed.

Now held at the Georgia Dome and beamed from coast-to-coast on the final evening of the calendar year, the Chick-fil-A Bowl has drawn 68,000 or more fans in 11 of the past 12 years. Last year’s game, in which LSU beat Georgia Tech 38-3, drew 71,423 to the Georgia Dome, the two teams splitting a $6 million purse.

LSU, which appeared in that inaugural Peach Bowl way back in 1968, didn’t appear in the game again until 1996. Starting with that 10-7 win over Clemson on Dec. 28, 1996, the Tigers have been back four times and are 4-0 (5-0 overall, counting its win in the inaugural game). Last year, the Tigers jumped all over Georgia Tech and the Yellow Jackets’ vaunted triple-option attack.

The two previous Chick-fil-A bowls were nail-biters. In 2007, Auburn edged Clemson 23-20 in overtime. The year before that, Georgia thrilled the Atlanta crowd with a 31-24 win over Virginia Tech.

The Hokies are back this year, meeting Tennessee on Dec. 31 at the Georgia Dome. It figures to be another great game, writing another chapter in what’s been a great story of growth for the bowl game that started 41 years ago.

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The reports last week were true, and two of the South’s most storied football programs will conclude their season in the Georgia Dome on New Year’s Eve.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl will feature Tennessee from the Southeastern Conference and Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference in Atlanta on Dec. 31, a matchup of two teams that look to head into 2010 on an upswing in the final hours of 2009.

Virginia Tech definitely won’t have to ask for directions to Atlanta. The game marks the third time this season the Hokies will play in Georgia’s capital city. Virginia Tech opened the season with a 34-24 loss to eventual BCS national championship game qualifier Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic at the Georgia Dome Sept. 5. Six weeks later, the Hokies were back in Atlanta as the fourth-ranked team in the nation, losing an ACC Coastal Division showdown to then No. 19 ranked and eventual ACC champ Georgia Tech in heartbreaking fashion. 28-23.

But after losing to unranked North Carolina 20-17 on Oct. 29, the Hokies have found their stride. Virginia Tech comes into the Chick-fil-A Bowl riding a four-game winning streak. In those four wins over East Carolina, Maryland, N.C. State and Virginia, the Hokies have outscored the opposition 132-35.

Tennessee’s season didn’t start as strong as the Hokies, but the Vols have mirrored Virginia Tech’s strong closing kick.

Under first-year head coach Lane Kiffin, the Vols dropped three of their first five games, losing by 10 to then-No. 1 ranked Florida on Sept. 19 in Gainesville, and a bitter 26-22 loss at home to Auburn on Oct. 3. But after blowing out Georgia 45-19 on Oct. 10 for Kiffin’s first SEC victory, it’s been mostly smooth sailing for the Vols.

Tennessee narrowly missed upsetting Alabama on Oct. 24, losing 12-10 on a blocked field goal attempt at the finish. But the Vols regrouped and closed the season with four victories in their final five contests, topping 30 points in all four victories to finish second in the ultra-tough SEC East.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl matchup is just the second time since 1937. The Vols downed the Hokies 45-23 in the 1994 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville. All told, the teams have faced each other seven times, the first six meetings coming between 1896 and 1937 (UT leads the series 5-2).

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Virginia Tech’s history with the Chick-fil-A Bowl goes way back to a time when the game wasn’t held at the Georgia Dome, and when the game wasn’t even named after the famous chicken sandwich.

Turn on the wayback machine to Jan. 2, 1981, when the bowl game in Atlanta was called the Peach Bowl and graced the long-since razed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

On that day, the Hokies made their Peach Bowl debut, losing 20-10 to Miami in front of 49,252 fans (about 11,000 fans short of capacity at the old stadium). Ashley Lee recorded 15 tackles for the Hokies and Virginia Tech forced four turnovers, but could not recover from a 14-3 halftime deficit.

Amid published reports Tuesday that the Hokies will play in this year’s Chick-fil-A Bowl against Tennessee, a look back reveals the Hokies have been in this game three times.

Virginia Tech returned to the Peach Bowl after the 1986 season, posting a thrilling 25-24 victory over N.C. State on New Year’s Eve that year at the old stadium. With just 1:53 left on the clock and 80 yards from the end zone, the Hokies drove downfield and got a 23-yard field goal from Chris Kinzer as time expired for the victory.

The Hokies returned to Atlanta for the bowl game 20 years later. The name of the game and the venue had changed as the Hokies took the field to face the fan-favorite Georgia Bulldogs on Dec. 30, 2006. In a thrilling game, the Dogs downed the Hokies 31-24. Virginia Tech built a 21-3 halftime lead before Georgia rallied for a thrilling victory, as Tony Taylor picked off two Virginia Tech passes.

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The official announcements won’t come for another few days, but according to a published report Tuesday, the Chick-fil-A Bowl matchup is set.

Tennessee will take on Virginia Tech in the Dec. 31 game at the Georgia Dome, according to an unnamed source, reported The Knoxville News Sentinel.

How did Tennessee, which plays in the SEC East, slip past the Outback Bowl in Tampa, where it appeared the Vols were heading? The Outback apparently is going to take Auburn, instead of snagging the SEC East’s runner-up.

Tennessee finished 7-5 on the season, 4-4 in the SEC.

If the Vols face Virginia Tech, it will mark the Hokies’ third trip to Georgia’s capital city this season. Virginia Tech hopes the third time will be the charm, having lost to Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic and falling at Georgia Tech in an ACC contest in October.

Virginia Tech finished the season 9-3, 6-2 in ACC action.

Virginia Tech last played in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in 2006, losing to Georgia 31-24. Tennessee last appeared in the game in January 2004, falling to Clemson 27-14.

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