Georgia’s football team will have two advantages this week that it hasn’t had since early October: Todd Gurley and Sanford Stadium.
After four consecutive games away from Athens, Georgia plays at home Saturday night against Auburn in a high-stakes matchup that marks the return of star tailback Gurley from a four-game suspension for selling autographs to memorabilia dealers in violation of NCAA rules.
“We’re glad he’s back, and we’re looking forward to seeing him play,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Sunday. “I’ll be glad to have this thing over with, no doubt.”
Richt wasn’t in a hurry, though, to delineate how the Bulldogs will distribute carries among their tailbacks when the former Heisman Trophy front-runner rejoins freshmen Nick Chubb, who averaged 168 rushing yards per game in his absence, and Sony Michel, who returned last week from a broken shoulder blade.
“Early in the year, we did a good job of giving (multiple) guys reps, and hopefully we can … do that,” Richt said. “Some of it will be playing by ear as the game goes on. … Part of the goal will be to make sure everybody is ready to play hard for those last 15 minutes of the game.”
As for whether Chubb will retain the starting role this week or immediately relinquish it back to Gurley, “we haven’t even talked about that yet,” Richt said. But he made it clear he expects Gurley, who had 773 yards rushing in the season’s first five games, to pick up where he left off.
“He’s definitely got fresh legs,” Richt said. “I think he stayed in really good condition during the time that he wasn’t playing. I don’t think you forget how to play football in five weeks, or forget how to run the ball the way he runs it and the way he pass-protects and catches balls out of the backfield and all that. So I think it’ll come back to him pretty quick.”
A Georgia win against Auburn would mean an SEC East championship and a berth in the SEC title game for the Bulldogs if — big if — division-leading Missouri loses one of its three remaining games: Saturday at Texas A&M, Nov. 22 at Tennessee or Nov. 28 at home against Arkansas.
For Georgia, the stakes are high enough this week to have stirred chatter on social media about whether the Bulldogs might wear black jerseys, as they did in a big 2007 victory over Auburn, rather than their normal red. But when told some players had tweeted about the possibility, Richt rejected it: “No, there’s no chance of that. Wishful thinking for them.”
Auburn (7-2, 4-2 SEC) dropped from No. 3 to No. 9 in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls released Sunday — the result of the Tigers’ 41-38 upset loss at home to Texas A&M the day before. That outcome cost the Georgia-Auburn matchup some luster on the national stage. Kickoff was set for 7:15 p.m. on ESPN after CBS instead chose the Alabama-Mississippi State game for its marquee 3:30 p.m. telecast.
“I guess my take on the (Auburn-Texas A&M) game is that any given Saturday anything can happen,” Richt said. “I think we all understand that, especially in this league.”
Georgia (7-2, 5-2 SEC) climbed to No. 16 in the AP poll and No. 14 in the coaches’ poll Sunday, up from No. 17 in both, after a 63-31 win at Kentucky.
Georgia and Auburn are the SEC’s two highest scoring teams, averaging 43 and 38.7 points per game, respectively. Auburn leads the SEC and ranks seventh nationally in rushing offense at 286.4 yards per game — a notable number given that Georgia allowed 418 rushing yards to Florida on Nov. 1.
“Everybody is having trouble stopping (Auburn) running the football,” Richt said. “When you add (quarterback Nick Marshall’s) ability to throw it — pretty impressive.”
Saturday’s game will be Georgia’s first in Sanford Stadium since an Oct. 4 victory over Vanderbilt. Since then, minus Gurley, the Bulldogs have had rousing road wins over Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky and a humbling loss to Florida in Jacksonville.
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