Auburn comes out of the bye week staring at its biggest challenge yet: a trip to face No. 1 Georgia on Saturday.
The Bulldogs are 6-0, fresh off a road win over No. 6 Alabama, and they’re the only unbeaten team left in the SEC.
For the Tigers, this game is about more than the scoreboard. However Saturday turns out, it should say something about how far Auburn still has to go before it can hang near the top of the league. And with that in mind, three things stand out heading into Athens.
One of the biggest blows for Auburn is the loss of Xavier Atkins. Alex Golesh confirmed Wednesday that Atkins is away from the team, and his status will be revisited next week. That leaves a major opening in the middle of the defense for one of Auburn’s best players on either side of the ball.
Sophomore linebacker Bryce Deas is the likeliest replacement, though he doesn’t bring the same impact. Atkins has had some issues with missed tackles this season, but his burst and athleticism are hard to replace. Elijah Melendez will keep steering the linebacker group, and it will be interesting to see how different the defense looks without Atkins in the middle.
Then there’s the noise. Auburn’s last true road game, a 24-14 loss to Tennessee two weeks ago, got messy fast on offense. The Tigers were flagged seven times for pre-snap penalties, and that kind of self-inflicted damage is the last thing they can afford in Athens.
The bye week gave Auburn time to clean that up, but practice noise only goes so far. Sanford Stadium may not carry quite the same reputation as Neyland for sheer volume, but it’s still a tough SEC road setting. Against a Georgia defense this good, every false step makes Auburn’s already shaky offense even harder to trust.
The final question is simple: how long can Auburn actually stay in it? The Tigers are nearly 21-point underdogs, and that’s the kind of spread that tells you what the outside world expects. Georgia has the edge in talent, and Auburn has been on the wrong end of this trip far too often over the past decade.
Still, being overmatched doesn’t automatically mean being out of it immediately. Auburn showed two years ago that it can at least make the first part of the night interesting in Athens. That game ended 31-13, but the Tigers were within 14-10 late in the third quarter.
A close loss won’t satisfy anyone in Auburn, especially with a 9-game losing streak against Georgia hanging over the matchup. But whether the Tigers can keep this one respectable for a half - or longer - is very much part of the story.
In Other News...
Auburn Suddenly Has A Real Opening In Athens Saturday
Georgias injury report is giving Auburn a little extra life heading into Saturdays trip to Athens. The Bulldogs may be without safety KJ Bolden, while safety Tyriq Green and outside linebacker Darren Ikinnagbon have already been ruled out, and that comes on top of several offensive absences as well, including receiver Isiah Canion and multiple running backs. For an Auburn team trying to find any edge in a difficult road setting, the availability chart has suddenly become part of the conversation.
Auburn has its own issue to sort through, with linebacker Xavier Atkins unavailable because of suspension, but the overall picture still leaves the Tigers looking at a Georgia roster that is not at full strength. Those kinds of misses can matter in a game where margins are already thin, especially when a defense is shuffling pieces and an offense may have to adjust on the fly. For Auburn, the opening is there now, and the challenge is making sure it does not close quickly on Saturday. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Fans Suddenly Have A Bigger Program Concern Than One Bad Week
Auburn has had plenty to sort through in a rough stretch, and the latest headline to land on campus has nothing to do with the basketball floor. Banana Ball announced Auburn as the site for its opening weekend, an eye-catching choice that immediately stirred up mixed reactions among fans trying to make sense of the schools latest news cycle.
All of it is arriving while the basketball program is already under a brighter spotlight after an exhibition loss to Florida State, with questions lingering about how the team is playing and where the coaching staff fits into the picture. And with Benko also in the mix in connection to Auburns business operations and NIL efforts, there is a lot more than one bad night pushing the conversation around the program right now. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Fans Have Every Right To Be Furious About Week 7
Week 7 is setting up as one of those Saturdays SEC fans circle on the calendar, only to realize they may spend most of it flipping between screens. Auburns trip to Georgia is in the same kickoff window as Alabama at Tennessee and Missouri at Ole Miss, creating a crowded slate of high-profile games that will all get going at once. For viewers, its the kind of scheduling jam that turns a big day into a constant compromise.
The loudest complaints have centered on Missouri at Ole Miss, which many around the league felt deserved a bigger national stage than the SEC Network. For Auburn fans, the overlap matters too, because their game at Georgia is part of the same traffic jam of attention, and there will be no easy way to keep up with everything else happening elsewhere in the conference. It is the sort of weekend that leaves fans arguing less about matchups and more about who decided they should all be watched at the same time. [Read more 🡒]