A New Twist to the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry

For two teams playing for the 122^nd time, you wouldn’t think it would be possible for something to be happening for the first time, but that is exactly the case on Saturday when Georgia takes on Auburn for the SEC Championship.

There are a few firsts for this game. It will be the first time the SEC Championship is played in the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It will be the first time cross-divisional rivals have ever squared off for the SEC Championship. It will also be the first time in the college football playoff era that the SEC Championship Game will serve as a sort of National Quarterfinal.

Georgia leads the all-time series 57-56-8, but it was just three weeks ago that Auburn throttled Georgia on the Plaines 40-17.

There are four things that will be different on Saturday from the first meeting and I think they all favor Georgia.

First, the home field advantage that Auburn enjoyed three weeks ago will not be present in Mercedes-Benz. I think it will probably be 60-40 Georgia-Auburn, but even if it is 50/50, the Auburn defense won’t have nearly the advantage that it did at Jordan-Hare.

Second is the health of Kerryon Johnson. It has been announced that Johnson could be a game-time decision on Saturday. I fully expect Johnson to play, but how effective he will be will go a long way in deciding who wins the game. As well as the Auburn offense is playing, it relies on Johnson running the ball to keep the defense honest and open up the passing game. A one-dimensional offense against Georgia’s defense is a recipe for failure.

Third is that the coaching staffs for each team have seen what the other team has, and now can make adjustments. I’ll take Kirby Smart 1000 times over Gus Malzahn. No offense to Malzahn, but we have seen his teams be inept many, many times over the years. He is a good coach with a great system that is nearly unstoppable when it is working, but I haven’t seen him be able to come up with a plan B in all his time at Auburn.

Fourth are the stakes. As I said before, the winner of this game goes to the playoff, while the loser will have to dream of what might have been. I can honestly say that this season has been an overwhelming success for Georgia, no matter what happens on Saturday. For a team that lost 5 games a year ago, two of those games being against Vanderbilt and Tech at home, this year has been a great turn around. Georgia won at Notre Dame for the first time in school history. They defeated three of their biggest rivals, Tennessee, Florida, and Tech by a combined score of 121-14. They won the SEC East for the first time in 5 years, by going undefeated in the division for the first time ever.

Auburn has to win on Saturday to make this a successful season. Think about that. In the past three weeks, the Tigers have defeated the number one team in the country twice, but none of it will matter without another victory. Auburn’s two early season losses make it where the Tigers’ are in a unique position. Win and it could be the greatest 4 week span in the history of college football. Lose and this team will be 10-3, and largely forgotten. That’s amazing.

When you look at what Auburn is as a program, you realize that their reputation is better than the teams they put on the field. Since 2007, the Tigers have averaged 4.8 losses per season! In that time, they have lost less than 4 games only twice. So why do we perceive them as a national power? Because the two times they lost less than four games they either played for or won the National Championship. Auburn is the best team in the nation at cashing in on limited opportunities. Meanwhile, the Mark Richt era at Georgia was defined completely by not cashing in. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012. All seasons where Georgia was in the hunt for a championship and talented enough to win it all, but they always managed to lose that one game that put them out of the title race. The one aspect of this game that favors opportunistic Auburn is that this is the exact type of season where they cash in.

There is one more factor about this game that can’t be ignored. Multiple media outlets are reporting that if Auburn loses this game, Gus Malzahn will be resigning and taking the Arkansas job. I had a friend ask me last weekend what I thought about those rumors and I dismissed them completely because it makes no sense to me. However, this seems to be real. Can you imagine a situation where by Monday, a team that has had the success the Tigers have had over the past month could be out of the playoff and looking for a new coach?

So on the field, what has to change for Georgia to win the SEC and make the playoff?

If I were numbering these, 1-100 would be that the offensive line has to, what do they call it these days…. BLOCK!!!!

Georgia couldn’t run the ball in the first game. Georgia couldn’t throw the ball in the first game. If you can’t run the ball, and you can’t throw the ball, there is no chance that you can score. If you can’t score, you can’t win. See, it’s really not that complicated.

Georgia has moved Ben Cleveland to right guard which has made the offensive line look better the past two weeks against Kentucky and Tech, but the real test for this line will be whether or not they can be effective against the Tigers.

Georgia also needs to eliminate the stupid mistakes. Georgia has struggled with penalties this season at times, but the mental mistakes made against Auburn were totally out of character for this team. Dropped punts. Kung Fu kicks when trying to rush the punter. Personal fouls on late hits out of bounds. All of these things extended drives and led to points for Auburn in the first game. Despite the fact that Auburn scored 40 points in the first meeting, Georgia’s defense played fairly well in the first game, but any defense that is sent back on the field two times after what should have been 3 and outs, is going to get demoralized and eventually break.

The one aspect of Georgia’s defense that will need to improve from the first game is tackling. There were far too many yards after contact for Kerryon Johnson. However, the worst part was terrible tackling by the Georgia secondary that allowed too many extra yards on Auburn passing plays. If Georgia tackles better against Auburn, the defense can dominate this game.

Georgia can’t be bland on offense. Too many times in the first game, Georgia ran the ball unsuccessfully on first and second down only to have either an incompletion or more often a sack on third down leading to a punt. Georgia has absolutely nothing to lose in this game and I want to see an offensive attack that understands this fact. Throw it on running downs. Run some draws. There are these pass plays called screens, they work some times. If you call a trick play, make sure you block the defensive line.

Georgia has, in my opinion, five players who are threats to score every time they touch the ball. Chubb, Michel, Swift, Hardman, and Wims. Those guys need to have the ball in their hands on nearly every offensive play. They need to all be on the field together and Georgia needs to attack this Auburn defense, rather than try to out-muscle them the way they did on the Plaines.

Can Georgia really make all these adjustments in just a few short weeks? Can they put a stop to Auburn’s dream run? I honestly don’t know. But I know one thing. I am excited to be in the position to find out.

This time last year, we were getting ready to not watch a crappy Florida team get destroyed by Alabama. This season, we are one win against a team that we have dominated for a decade away from the College Football Playoff.

Get used to this Georgia fans. This isn’t just our present, this is our future.

Go Dawgs!