CBS Sports analyst Brian Kelly still sees Georgia as the best team in college football, even after the Bulldogs’ 27-24 home loss to Auburn.
Kelly said on College Sports Radio on Sirius XM this week that his view of the sport’s top team starts with who he thinks is actually No. 1, not just who is undefeated. He pointed to Georgia despite the setback against the Tigers.
“My standards have nothing to do with the committee. And so I’ll just use that as the preface. I’m looking for what I would consider who truly is the number one team in the country,” Kelly said.
“And to me, it’s Georgia. They had a loss against Auburn.
There were mitigating circumstances. When I watch games, that’s the best team.
So, first criteria for me is get the first team right. And then after that, reward those teams that are undefeated and have been consistent through the entire year.”
The argument is simple enough: Georgia still looks like the most complete team, even if the Auburn result makes that harder to defend on paper. Kelly’s phrase “mitigating circumstances” is doing a lot of work there.
Georgia did have injuries working against it in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Safeties KJ Bolden and Tyriq Green, receiver Isiah Canion, and running back Chauncey Bowens were all out, and that mattered.
Auburn had its own issue, though, losing defensive anchor linebacker Xavier Atkins right before the game. The Tigers still had to handle the road environment and adjust on the fly, and they did enough to pull off the upset.
Kelly wasn’t trying to throw a shot at Auburn. He was trying to sort through a college football season that hasn’t produced a clear dominant team. But calling the Tigers’ win a case of “mitigating circumstances” is still a pretty soft way to frame the biggest result of the season.
And no, Auburn fans don’t need to start rooting for Georgia the rest of the way. But if the Bulldogs keep winning from here, that loss to the Tigers will look a whole lot better in hindsight.
In Other News...
Auburns Arizona Loss May Have Changed Steven Pearls Rotation
Auburns 80-69 loss to Arizona did more than snap the nations best non-conference home winning streak. It also may have nudged Steven Pearl toward a different look in his rotation, with Thomas Dowd leading the Tigers in scoring and minutes while Owen Freeman logged important run during the most meaningful stretches of the game. Even in defeat, Auburn found some individual bright spots, but the overall performance was uneven enough to raise questions about how the frontcourt minutes should be distributed moving forward.
Foul trouble and shooting issues made the night harder to sort out than a typical early-season setback, and Arizona took advantage of the openings. For Auburn, the bigger takeaway may be less about the final margin than about which combinations held up when the game tightened, and which ones did not. Pearl now has a little more evidence to weigh as the Tigers move ahead, especially if he wants a rotation that can better survive the kind of pressure Arizona brought to Neville Arena. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Mississippi State Trip Just Got Tougher Before Early Kickoff
Auburns Week 11 trip to Mississippi State has turned into a little more of a grind than planned, with the Tigers set to bus to Starkville because of a nationwide FAA ground stop that has disrupted flights. The original plan called for the team to fly out of Columbus and then continue by bus from Tupelo, but the travel change adds another wrinkle to a road game already built around an early start.
Coach Alex Golesh addressed the challenge of getting his team ready for an 11 a.m. kickoff after an early morning ride, and for Auburn the focus now shifts to keeping the routine as normal as possible on a day that will not feel normal at all. There have been no indications the game will be postponed or canceled, so the Tigers are simply adjusting and moving forward with a tougher-than-expected travel day. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Showed Real Promise But One Problem Will Follow This Team
Auburn left plenty to like in its 80-69 loss to No. 12 Arizona, even if the final score still sent the Tigers home with their first blemish of the season. The defense was active and disruptive, piling up 13 blocks and 12 steals, and the bench gave the team a real lift with 34 points, nearly half of Auburns total.
The problem was the kind that can undo good stretches against quality opponents: turnovers, fouls and missed free throws. Auburn showed it can defend and get production beyond the starters, but until the Tigers clean up the mistakes that kept giving Arizona extra chances, the margin for error against ranked teams will stay thin. [Read more 🡒]