Auburn believes it can truly compete with Georgia. It should.
Auburn believes it can truly compete with Georgia. It should.
The Tigers took the Bulldogs down to the wire last year. Doing that in Athens is a much tougher task for a 2-3 team, but they shouldn't get intimidated.
QB Payton Thorne (Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — Yes, Auburn is 2-3, having lost all three games it’s played against power-conference opponents.
Yes, Georgia is coming back home after an instant classic at Alabama that was the program’s first regular-season loss since the 2020 Cocktail Party against Florida.
Yes, Auburn hasn’t won a road game in Athens since 2005. The last time the Tigers were there, they lost by 32.
As they say, the buildings in Vegas are tall and shiny for a reason. So, when Georgia opened as a 24-point home favorite against Auburn earlier this week, there was plenty of reasoning behind it.
But people might forget that last season, immediately after a low-scoring SEC loss at Texas A&M, Auburn had then-No. 1 Georgia on the ropes. The Tigers raced out to an early 10-0 lead and were tied with the Bulldogs heading into both the third and fourth quarters.
A late, Brock Bowers-heavy touchdown drive was ultimately the difference for Georgia’s escape inside Jordan-Hare Stadium against Auburn just one year ago.
“They're a great team, a championship team who's done it before, and (we) have a lot of respect for them,” quarterback Payton Thorne said Tuesday. “But, at the same time, you take from last year (that) we can play with the top teams in the country, and we've proved that multiple times.
“For us it's about executing, putting together a good week’s worth of practice and then just trusting what our coaches are giving us, going out there on Saturday and executing to the best of our ability — and getting in the end zone.”
There are no moral victories, especially in a historic and, recently, one-sided rivalry. (There are also no moral victories, as Thorne said last Saturday, when a team has lost winnable games at the rate that Auburn has.)
But last year, Auburn had Georgia on the ropes, despite being quite limited. Thorne only had 82 passing yards. Auburn allowed Georgia to go 8-13 on third downs, too.
Even though the all-important record doesn’t reflect it, Auburn has played like a better team than it was in 2023.
The Tigers actually have a functional downfield passing game, currently 24th nationally at 8.4 passing yards per attempt against power-conference opponents after finishing 90th in that category last season. They also have a top-20 overall defense, although it must be stated that all of those games came at home.
Yes, the turnovers, rough clock management and an inability to finish drives on a consistent basis have gone a long way in taking Auburn from a 4-1 or 5-0 team to a 2-3 team. And Hugh Freeze and his staff get paid to win games, not just rack up stats.
The Tigers, though, believe they can compete against anyone on their schedule. They should, given the close calls they’ve had over the last two seasons — including last year’s Georgia loss.
“I think we'll take a lot from it, just like we'll take away from what we've taken away from these games this year that we've let slip away,” tight end Luke Deal said. “We've been there. You can play with any team in the country, if you play the way that we've been playing — minus a few mistakes.”
Auburn’s record is what it is, and the point spread for Saturday suggests that things could get out of hand yet again in Athens. Again, there are no moral victories.
But, for a team that has no choice except to rally after a massively frustrating start, the Tigers won’t look at their rivalry showdown with the Bulldogs like most everybody else around the country will.
“We take it into account, just knowing that we can compete with those top teams,” defensive end Zykeivous Walker said. “We need to have a great week of practice this week. It’s just another game on our schedule that we need to go out and attack and win.”
Here’s more of what we heard and saw at the Football Performance Center on Tuesday afternoon as Auburn continued its preparations for Georgia.
RB Jarquez Hunter (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)