Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry gets a first in historic series

Georgia and Auburn will meet for the 122nd time during Saturday’s SEC Championship.

But for the first time in history, the two teams will square off against one another for the second time in a single season.

Rematches don’t happen often in college football. And before the advent of the conference championship game — which the SEC started in 1992 — it was exceptionally rare for two teams to play each other twice in one year.

But the Bulldogs and Tigers are set for another game in their historic series, with a conference championship on the line and a berth in the four-team college football playoffs.

“The last time we have been here was the year before I got here. We are used to having this week off, but it is definitely exciting,” Georgia defensive back Aaron Davis said, referring to the Bulldogs’ last SEC Championship appearance in 2012.

“It is what you work for. We’ve been working hard the past 11 months to get to this point. All the guys are super eager to get out there to put on our best performance.”

This actually isn’t the first — or second or third — time Georgia and Auburn are meeting for a game in Atlanta. While the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has alternated between Athens and Auburn since 1959, this game was once a neutral-site meeting for both teams. From 1916-1958, with the exception of a 1929 game played in Athens, the Georgia-Auburn game took place in Columbus.

Before Columbus hosted the game, the two teams played in Athens in 1915.

But in 1914, Georgia and Auburn played in Atlanta at Piedmont Park — a far cry from downtown Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is expected to house 71,000 people for Saturday’s championship game.

In the 1914 game, Auburn entered with a 7-0 record and Georgia was a mere 3-5. But like any rivalry, strange things can happen. The two teams waged a defensive slugfest, which ended in a 0-0 tie. It would be the lone game keeping Auburn from a perfect season.

In addition to that game, Auburn and Georgia played their 1913 game in Atlanta, with the Tigers winning 21-7. From 1892-1903, the game was held in Atlanta each year. Auburn holds a 5-4-3 lead over Georgia when the game is played in Atlanta, meaning Saturday’s game could be an opportunity for the Bulldogs to even the score in that obscure statistic.

The rivalry has also had brief stints in Macon (1904-07), Montgomery, Ala., (1908-09) and Savannah (1910-11). The first game in Athens came in 1912.

Through it all, the series has been quite even. Falling one game behind in the rivalry before the 2014 meeting, Georgia went on a three-game winning streak before losing 40-17 three weeks ago. That now leaves Georgia with a slim 57-56-8 lead in the series.

With how this Auburn team has played over the final five weeks of the regular season, there is an argument that it is the best team in all of college football. Even with two losses, the Tigers jumped to No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday thanks to wins over Georgia and Alabama, which were ranked No. 1 during the weeks Auburn played them.

“They’re playing at a really high level, probably one of the hottest teams in college football — if not the hottest team in college football,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said.

HITTING ITS STRIDE

As for this season, there is quite the contrast for how each of the teams arrived at this point.

Auburn lost a 14-6 game to Clemson in Week 2, which didn’t appear as close as the final score indicated. Quarterback Jarrett Stidham was sacked 11 times, and the offense had a hard time moving the ball.

Auburn followed that with a tougher-than-expected game with Mercer University before pulling it out 24-10. Then it appeared that the Tigers were back on track following blowout wins over Missouri, Mississippi State and Mississippi.

Auburn, though, then blew a 20-0 lead and fell to LSU 27-23 in stunning fashion. It appeared its playoff chances were over.

Yet after that loss, no team has played as well as Auburn has over the past five weeks of the season. The Tigers have defeated those opponents by an average margin of 22 points, which included victories over then-No. 1 teams Georgia and Alabama.

Georgia, conversely, has been the dominant team in nine of its 12 games. The Bulldogs escaped South Bend, Indiana, with a 20-19 win over Notre Dame and proceeded to jump out to a 9-0 record in impressive fashion. The only team other than Notre Dame that Georgia beat by fewer than three scores was South Carolina, which was a 24-10 victory.

But then the Auburn game brought a crash to reality. Auburn stuffed Georgia up front and held it to 46 rushing yards. That game was an outlier based on the rest of the season. The Bulldogs closed out their final two games with wins over Kentucky and Georgia Tech.

On Saturday, the two teams will meet again for the SEC Championship’s seventh rematch. In the past six instances, the team that won the regular season meeting won the SEC title game five times.

This game has a different feel, because Georgia and Auburn played just three weeks ago. Even Auburn running back Kerryon Johnson said it has a strange feel to it.

“In terms of us playing Georgia again, it’s going to be kind of weird, honestly,” Johnson said. “You just planned to go against a team two weeks ago, and now you’ve got to re-plan.

“Obviously, we’re playing better, they’re playing better. They’re doing things different, we do things different. ... But you’ve got to lock in, and at the end of the day, you’ve got to go in there and give 100 percent effort, and I believe the rest plays itself out.”

This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry gets a first in historic series."