A packed campus. A get-closer-than-you-wanted-to-your-neighbor Dawg Walk. A deafening crowd. A resounding win over the defending national champions.

Many pundits went so far as to call last weekend’s game the biggest ever in Sanford Stadium. In August, I was among them. I was wrong; tomorrow’s game is bigger.

While there is some truth to the axiom that every next game is the biggest game, there is more at work than just that. It is rare that a conference title comes down to beating Vanderbilt. Everyone beats Vanderbilt.

The LSU game was nice, but it was for pride and polls. The outcome would likely not have determined the East’s representative in Atlanta no matter what else happens this season.

Beating Tennessee will. A loss to the Vols would leave the big orange with a clear path to the Dome, a pesky trip to Columbia notwithstanding.

To borrow an old golf adage, LSU was for show — Tennessee is for dough.

This is not to say that the Vols will be any more difficult to beat than in years past. In fact, the exact opposite may be true.

Anyone who watched the past two games between these teams likely noticed that any lineman wearing orange seems unable to stop David Pollack without flinging him to the ground. For said linemen, this is a problem.

Couple that with the fact that the Vols’ top lineman, Arron Sears (nope, it’s not the pretty boy with the famous name), is listed as doubtful for the contest, and you have 280 pounds of relentless headache for Volunteer quarterbacks.

Speaking of quarterbacks, the two Tennessee will bring to Athens are both only months removed from their high school prom. But instead of slow dancing to “Take My Breath Away” long into the night, the youthful duo should plan on spending this Saturday dancing away from a dominating pass rush and a raucous crowd.

Did I mention these two have yet to play on the road? What better way than to welcome them to the SEC than to force them into missed reads, bad checkdowns, delay of game penalties and audibles that are, for lack of a better term, inaudible?

If you think the noise level made a difference last week, watch out. I’d be willing to set the over/under on botched plays tomorrow at five. I want the over; any takers?

A win tomorrow, coupled with an LSU victory over Florida (Geaux Tigers!), would give the Dogs a two game lead in the division over both of their main competitors.

A loss would mean relying on the Gamecocks to beat UT, something that hasn’t happened in my lifetime, to let the Bulldogs back into the division race.

Thus, this is the biggest game of the year, at least so far. I trust the Bulldog Nation will do its part; after last week, we all know what can happen.

– Andrew Moore is the lead Sports columnist for The Red & Black.