Auburn heads into Saturday’s trip to Athens with a week off in the bank and a brutal assignment waiting on the other side. The Tigers will face No.
1 Georgia in the 131st edition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. CT from Sanford Stadium.
Auburn is 3-2 overall and 1-2 in SEC play, while Georgia enters at 6-0 and 4-0 in the league. The Bulldogs have owned this series lately, winning nine straight and holding the edge all-time, 66-56-8.
Georgia also comes in fresh off one of the biggest wins of its season, a 20-17 road victory over No. 7 Alabama. That performance only sharpened the challenge for Auburn coach Alex Golesh, who said the Bulldogs leave little margin for error.
“So, there’s not a ton of holes that you can expose. We got to play physical as you do every week in this league.
You can't turn the football over. You got to maximize possessions.
And obviously you got to try to take it away to try to create some possessions," Golesh said. "An impressive team, extremely well coached.
And obviously going on the road in that environment, that will be a huge piece of us being able to handle the crowd noise, handle the environment. Again, like a lot of weeks in this league, that'll be a huge key to our success offensively."
Fans can watch the game nationally on ESPN. Dave Pasch and Dusty Dvoracek will have the call from the booth, with Taylor McGregor reporting from the sideline.
For radio listeners, the Auburn Sports Network will carry the game across Alabama and the Southeast beginning three hours before kickoff. Andy Burcham and Jason Campbell will be on the call, with Ronnie Brown on the sideline.
Georgia enters as a heavy favorite, and the projected score lines up with that status: Georgia 31, Auburn 13. The spread is Georgia by 19, with the over/under set at 49.5. On the money line, Georgia is listed at -1200 and Auburn at +850.
One thing Auburn can lean on is possession time. The Tigers average 26:22 per game, compared with Georgia’s 30:33, so controlling the football could be part of the plan if Auburn wants to slow things down and keep the Bulldogs from dictating the game.
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Auburn Has A Real Chance To Make Georgia Sweat
Auburn heads into its matchup with Georgia carrying the kind of underdog profile that can make a favorite uncomfortable, at least on paper. SportsLines 1,000 simulations point to the Tigers covering the spread nearly 60 percent of the time, a nod to a game model that sees Auburn in better shape than the oddsmakers do. The Tigers are also coming off a bye week, and the projections lean toward a lower-scoring game in which Auburns rushing attack could look sharper.
There are still obvious hurdles to clear in Athens, starting with Georgias home dominance under Kirby Smart and Auburns own personnel hit after linebacker Xavier Atkins was suspended. But the simulation results suggest this might be more than a routine road spot for the Tigers, especially if they can control tempo and make the game play out on their terms. The question now is whether Auburn can turn that theoretical edge into the kind of performance that forces Georgia into a real fight. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Faces A Brutal Early Test In Athens Under Alex Golesh
Auburn heads into one of the toughest assignments on its schedule Saturday, when the Tigers travel to Athens for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff against No. 1 Georgia on ESPN. The matchup brings the usual rivalry pressure, but this one also arrives with the Bulldogs again looking like the more complete team, and with Auburn beat writers pointing to the gap in talent and Georgias recent control of the series.
Still, the bye week gives Auburn a little extra time to sort through its issues before walking into Sanford Stadium, and that was a recurring part of the discussion in the staff predictions. Even with Georgias edge and Auburns uneven season so far, there is at least some belief that a better-prepared Tigers team can make the trip more competitive than the matchup on paper might suggest. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Faces The SEC Test That Could Change Everything
Week 7 brings the kind of SEC slate that can reshape an October in a hurry, and Auburn is right in the middle of it with a trip to face Georgia drawing plenty of attention. Around the league, five analysts have weighed in on eight upcoming conference matchups, underscoring how much uncertainty still hangs over the race and how thin the margin is in games like Auburn-Georgia, Alabama-Tennessee and Missouri-Ole Miss.
For Auburn, the matchup is about more than just another prediction column. It is the sort of test that can alter the conversation around the Tigers in a hurry, because every SEC weekend seems to carry extra weight and every pick comes with a built-in argument. The forecasts are only opinions, of course, but they reflect the stakes well enough: Auburn is heading into one of those Saturdays where the result can change how the rest of the season feels. [Read more 🡒]