Auburn heads into Saturday’s trip to No. 1 Georgia short-handed on defense, with coach Alex Golesh confirming Monday that preseason All-American linebacker Xavier Atkins will be unavailable.
“We will be without Xavier Atkins this week,” Golesh said at his Monday press conference. ”We’ll revisit it next week when we meet again on Monday here. We’ll keep it in-house in terms of anything beyond that-that’ll be the only piece of it that I will be addressing.”
Atkins has been one of Auburn’s most productive defenders, tying for the team lead with 3 sacks and ranking second with 37 tackles. His absence comes as the Tigers prepare for a major stage against the Bulldogs in Athens, where Golesh described the matchup as “a big-time program on a big-time stage.”
Auburn enters the game at 3-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEC, while Georgia is 6-0 and 4-0. The rivalry has plenty of history behind it, too. Auburn owns an 18-18 mark against Georgia at Sanford Stadium in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, which has now been played 130 times since 1892.
Golesh pointed to Auburn’s own background against elite competition as part of the challenge, noting the Tigers have three regular-season wins over AP No. 1 teams since the start of the BCS era in 1998, tied with Texas A&M for the most in college football.
Still, he made clear the focus this week is less about the pageantry and more about execution. Auburn used its bye week to study itself closely, and Golesh came away encouraged by the team’s attitude.
“I thought the intent was positive …. The mentality of the team is we have so much to prove,” Golesh said. “When we are at our best, we can play at the highest level of football, when we’re not, we’re just good enough to get embarrassed.”
The first-year Auburn coach also stressed the importance of starting fast, a point he shared in similar fashion to Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer last week. Georgia has overwhelmed opponents early, outscoring them 164-40 in first quarters.
“The biggest thing we are trying to get to is, we’ve always done an elite job from the in-game adjustments standpoint in the sense of this is how they’re attacking us, this is where we go,” Golesh said.
“I feel like we’ve done an elite job with that this year. Go back and say like, can we get to that even earlier in our game plan process, where early on in the game you’re on the right thing to go create efficient runs. It can be the running back, it can be the quarterback whatever you feel your advantage can be.”
Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown brings one of the more unusual resumes in the country into the matchup. He has accounted for 105 rushing and passing touchdowns in his career, eight more than any other active player in the FBS.
In Auburn’s last game, a 24-14 loss at No. 14 Tennessee, Brown scored both on the ground and through the air.
Golesh sees the same sort of precision challenge on the other side of the ball, where Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton has become the engine of the Bulldogs’ offense.
“As we prep for Georgia, number one team in the country, and you watch it, all three phases, certainly look that way,” Golesh said. “Offensively, man, the quarteback is a really really good player, makes a lot of things go, doesn’t make a ton of mistakes.
“You could tell (he’s) a veteran guy that’s played in the system that gets the ball to the right places, can move it with his feet, can escape in a lot of ways.”
Golesh was just as direct when assessing Georgia’s defense, which he described as big, physical and difficult to move.
“Defensively it’s a mirror image, up front really big, really stout, really physical, that second level, man, size, speed and physical, and then in the back end, that secondary is real, both corners and safeties can cover, they do a really good job of taking what you do away.
“We’ve got to play physical, as you do every week in this league, you can’t turn the football over, you have to maximize possessions.”
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Gunner Stockton Is Giving Georgia Fans A New Ceiling To Debate
Gunner Stockton is changing the way Georgia fans talk about the offense, and the conversation now feels bigger than one comeback win. After helping steer the Bulldogs past Alabama and into the top spot in the rankings, Stockton has become the latest reason to wonder just how high this team can climb, especially with the quarterback showing steady growth under offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.
What stood out in the moment was not just the result, but how composed Stockton looked against a familiar heavyweight. Alabama left with plenty of respect for his efficiency and his ability to keep drives alive when the game tightened, which only adds to the sense that Georgia may have found a quarterback whose ceiling is still being written. [Read more 🡒]
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Now the focus turns to Auburn, where the matchup could invite another heavy dose of the ground game if Georgias top backs remain out. The Tigers have struggled against the run, so the Bulldogs may again be asking an improvised rotation to do work that normally falls to more familiar faces, with the bigger question hanging over whether that setup can last for another SEC week. [Read more 🡒]