Auburn didn’t just beat Georgia on Saturday. It ripped up the script.
The Tigers stared down a No. 1 team that had owned the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry for nine straight games and walked out with a 27-24 win, ending Kirby Smart’s perfect 30-0 regular-season record as the No. 1 team in the land. Auburn had been a three-touchdown underdog. For a while, it looked like the matchup would play out the way plenty of people expected, with Georgia taking control and Auburn chasing.
Instead, Auburn clawed all the way back from an early two-touchdown deficit, stacked 24 straight points and spent three wild quarters playing the kind of game that has always defined its best days: run the ball, stop the run, and make the other side feel every hit.
The finish still got tense, because of course it did. Georgia was able to drive toward a potential winning field goal late, and the familiar Auburn dread started creeping in.
But then came the break that changed everything: Georgia’s veteran quarterback fumbled at midfield, and Cody Sigler, the former Division II transfer from West Alabama who prepped at New Hope, had a hand in it. Auburn recovered, and the offense took care of the rest.
Byrum Brown was the engine. He led the decisive drive, absorbed a roughing-the-passer hit that turned a long field-goal try into a chip shot, and kept refusing to let Georgia finish him off.
It was the third personal foul Georgia committed against him, and he shrugged off all of it to run 26 times for 115 yards and a touchdown while completing 15 passes for 150 yards and another score. He matched Cam Newton’s 2010 run of four straight games with at least one passing and rushing touchdown, leaving him one short of Nick Marshall’s 2013 school record.
Just as important, he protected the ball. It was only the second time in an Auburn uniform that he did not turn it over.
That allowed Alex McPherson to finish the job. His 34-yard kick put the final stamp on the win and sent Georgia home with its first loss in the rivalry since Auburn’s drought began nine years ago.
McPherson, who has battled ulcerative colitis and lost a large intestine, came through with the kind of kick that felt bigger than the scoreboard. Auburn 27, Georgia 24.
No asterisk needed. Auburn had an extra week to prepare, while Georgia was coming off a draining win at Alabama, but the result stands on its own. The Tigers were ready for the fight, and for the first time in a long while, they looked like the tougher team when it mattered most.
For Alex Golesh, six games into his time on the Plains, it was the kind of victory that changes the mood around a program. He said he had heard from Takeo Spikes, Jason Campbell, Ronnie Brown and Bo Jackson before the game, and afterward he talked about wanting Auburn to reach a place where beating Georgia would not shock the sport. He also made sure the celebration had an expiration date, reminding everyone that Sunday morning meant turning to LSU.
On one of those fall Saturdays that college football seems built for, Auburn got the day it had been waiting on.
In Other News...
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Xavier Atkins had become one of Auburns most important defensive pieces this season, so his dismissal from the football program lands at a particularly difficult moment. The junior linebacker had already built out a strong 2025 rsum and was part of the group helping stabilize a unit that needed dependable play at the second level.
Now Auburn has to move on without one of its top defensive leaders after his suspension during the win over Georgia. The Tigers will have to lean harder on the linebackers still standing, including sophomore Elijah Melendez, as they try to keep the defense steady with the schedule still moving fast. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffin Just Added More Intrigue To Auburn's LSU Showdown
Lane Kiffin has already started stirring the pot ahead of LSUs trip to Auburn, and in doing so he added another layer to a game that was already carrying plenty of weight. Kiffin said he was pulling for Auburn to knock off Georgia in the Tigers recent matchup because LSU is next on the schedule, and he also acknowledged how difficult it is to deal with Auburn at home. For Auburn fans, it was the kind of candid opponent commentary that only sharpens attention on a matchup that was already going to draw plenty of it.
The timing matters because LSU is trying to steady itself in the SEC, where recent losses have only increased the pressure around Kiffins tenure. Auburn, meanwhile, gets a chance to play spoiler on its own turf, with the ripple effects reaching far beyond one Saturday night. If LSU slips again, the impact would not stop at the standings, and the stakes around this one figure to keep rising the closer kickoff gets. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Can't Let Its Georgia High Carry Into LSU Trouble
Auburn walked out of a 27-24 upset of No. 1 Georgia with plenty to feel good about, but the attention inside the program has already shifted to making sure one emotional win does not leak into the next week. Head coach Alex Golesh, along with coordinators Joel Gordon and DJ Durkin, spent a recent press conference laying out the same message from different angles: the Tigers played well enough to beat an elite opponent, yet there were still plenty of details to clean up before No. 18 LSU arrives.
Golesh pointed to the defenses turnovers, the fundamentals that carried the night and the progress made by younger players, while Gordon said the offense still needs more consistency and praised quarterback Byrum Brown for the kind of toughness Auburn will keep leaning on. The larger concern now is whether the Tigers can bottle the energy from the Georgia win without carrying any of its looseness into a matchup that figures to demand a cleaner performance from the opening snap. [Read more 🡒]