Lewis Grizzard famously described Georgia and Auburn as “two brothers wrestling,” and sometimes brothers get sick of one another. After his Bulldogs beat Kentucky, Kirby Smart said of his next opponent, “They don’t like us very much” – the clear implication being that the feeling was mutual.
For Smart, familiarity could well have bred contempt. He worked at Alabama for nine years, and every November the Crimson Tide met the Tigers in an even more heated game. Then he moved back to his alma mater, for which Auburn is classified by the SEC as a “traditional” rival, meaning that every November brings another sighting.
For Auburn, the heightening dislike can be traced to a steady diet of defeats. Not since the 1950s had either team won more than three in a row. Mark Richt’s Bulldogs won four in a row. In all, Richt was 10-5 against Auburn, which wasn’t enough to keep him from getting fired, which goes to show that, as grand as the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has been, the Bulldogs have come to care about Florida in Jacksonville more.
Last November, things got interesting again. Georgia went to Jordan-Hare Stadium ranked No. 1 by the College Football Playoff committee and came home lugging a 40-17 loss. Three weeks later, the two met again for the SEC title. Georgia won 28-7.
Entering Saturday night’s game here, the Bulldogs had won 10 of the past 13 games. The three exceptions were, er, exceptional. In 2010, Auburn and Cam Newton beat Georgia en route to an undefeated BCS title. In 2013, Auburn and Nick Marshall won, albeit barely, en route to a BCS title date with Florida State. That was the sort of stat that drove Bulldog fans nuts: “We beat them every year but two, and both times they play for a national championship – which we NEVER get to do.”
That changed last season. Auburn beat CFP No. 1s Georgia and Alabama in the span of two weeks – and didn’t make the playoff. Georgia and Alabama met for the CFP title on the same field where the Tigers were upset by Central Florida in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Small world, huh?
Both Georgia-Auburn games last year had major repercussions. This year’s installment matched teams ranked No. 5 and No. 24 by the committee, but there wasn’t much to sort out. Auburn cannot win the SEC West and, with three losses, has no shot of making the playoff. Georgia could lose to the Tigers – it was favored by 14 points, FYI – and not have its postseason possibilities change much at all. It must beat Alabama on Dec. 1 to crack the field of four. A two-loss SEC champ, especially one that just stemmed the Tide, might make it. A two-loss non-champ would not.
The Bulldogs have been pretty much as expected. Auburn has been a major disappointment. It lost at home to LSU, which can happen, and also to rebuilding Tennessee, which shouldn’t have. It managed nine points – no touchdowns – in a thudding loss at Mississippi State.
The good will flowing from the Tigers’ season-opening victory over Washington in Atlanta has long since dissipated. (The Huskies have themselves been no great shakes.) After handing Gus Malzahn a $49 million contract extension last December, this wasn’t what Auburn had in mind -- and it could get worse. The Tigers must face Georgia and Alabama the road. Should they finish 7-5, it would equal 2015 as its worst regular season (of six) under a coach contractually bound through 2024 and whose buyout would be $32.1 million.
This might, we concede, be assuming too much. Strange things happen when these siblings wrestle. We reference the Prayer at Jordan-Hare, a pass thrown by a quarterback who began his collegiate life as a Georgia cornerback and deflected by a Georgia safety who would transfer to Auburn.
Also the 1986 game, when Bulldogs quarterback James Jackson was delayed at a funeral and didn’t show, which bothered his teammates not one whit. They upset No. 8 Auburn, which prompted their hosts to cast water on celebrating fans, which prompted press-box wits to label the setting “Between The Hoses.”
Or the 2006 game, also at Auburn, which saw the Bulldogs enter having lost four of five – two of those against Vanderbilt and Kentucky – and seize a 24-0 lead before some Tigers fans had taken their seats. (The game had an 11:30 a.m. CST kickoff.)
And, for sheer lunacy, that game’s immediate predecessor may stand forever: Auburn’s Devin Aromashodu caught a pass on fourth-and-10 against Willie Martinez’s defense and appeared to score the go-ahead touchdown. But no. He fumbled into the end zone. Courtney Taylor, also of Auburn, recovered.
The ball was placed at the Georgia 3, allowing the Tigers to run down the clock – a key consideration in a game that saw 952 yards of total offense – before kicking the winning field goal. And the weirdest part? Auburn, which came into the game having outscored the Bulldogs by one point over the fullness of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, won by one point.
The Bulldogs have since seized a 110-point lead in the series. Just 110 more reasons for the Tigers not to like them very much.
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