Georgia-Auburn rivalry friendlier than others

Athens — Of Georgia’s football rivalries, the border battle with Auburn is the oldest, going all the way back to a game in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park in 1892, and the most competitive, with 111 meetings decided by an average score of 15.6-15.2.

Yet the Georgia-Auburn rivalry somehow has survived all those years and all those battles without developing the rancor of Georgia-Georgia Tech or Georgia-Florida.

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Pouya Dianat/pdianat@ajc.com

Knowshon Moreno and Georgia irked Auburn by dancing on the sidelines during last year’s win over the Tigers in Athens.

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“I think for the most part it’s really been on a high plane,” said Vince Dooley, the former Auburn player and former Georgia coach.

“It seems like everybody gets along a little bit better, even though we do compete in a fierce way,” said Mark Richt, the current Georgia coach. “It’s almost, almost, almost like family. I don’t know if I would say it is.”

“Feuding cousins,” Dooley said.

Saturday, in Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, Georgia and Auburn will meet for the 112th time — the seventh most-played series in Division I-A football, the oldest series in the Deep South and one of the most competitive anywhere.

Auburn leads the series 53-50-8, and after all those games only 45 points separate the teams: Georgia 1,730-Auburn 1,685. Georgia has won the past two meetings by uncharacteristically wide margins, but the teams are 5-5 and 8-8-1 against one another over the past 10 and 17 years.

It is a quirky series — a series in which the road team has won more often than the home team and a series in which the lower-ranked team has won seven of the past 12 games. But the quirkiest thing, given the nature of rivalry in college football, is that for the most part Georgia and Auburn confine their feud to the field.

This, after all, is a series in which Georgia long was coached by an Auburn grad (Dooley) and Auburn by a Georgia grad (Pat Dye).

Such crossovers continue, with two current Georgia assistants — defensive line coach Rodney Garner and offensive line coach Stacy Searels — having played at Auburn and Auburn offensive line coach Hugh Nall having played at Georgia.

“There is a lot in common between the two schools in a lot of ways,” said Dooley, who has good reason for fond feelings about the series: Five of his six SEC championships as Georgia coach were clinched with victories at Auburn.

Oh, the series has had its spats, like when the Auburn grounds crew turned fire hoses on Georgia fans who stormed the field after an upset victory in 1986. And some Auburn players took offense last year when, during Georgia’s victory in Athens, Bulldogs players danced on the sidelines to the song “Crank That (Soulja Boy).”

“I hate to say hate, but I can’t stand Georgia,” Auburn running back Tristan Davis said this week.

Davis, from East Point, is among 25 Georgians on Auburn’s roster, compared to just two players from Alabama on Georgia’s roster.

Said Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville: “The reason a lot of these players came here [is] they wanted to play either against Georgia or against Alabama.”

Still, some Georgia players — accustomed to the heat of the Florida and Tech rivalries — hardly recognize the Auburn series in the same genre.

“I wouldn’t even really say it’s a rivalry,” safety Reshad Jones said. “I’d say it’s another tough SEC game.”

“I think it’s pretty big, but not a Georgia-Georgia Tech game,” linebacker Darryl Gamble said. “I guess all the bordering states have some sort of rivalry [with Georgia]. It seems like we are just in the middle of everybody’s anger.”

Those who have been around longer can better appreciate the nuance of Georgia-Auburn.

“Oh yeah, sure it’s a rivalry,” Dooley said firmly. “Feuding cousins.”

— Staff writer Ken Sugiura contributed to this article from Auburn, Ala.