Four years ago, Gus Malzahn was worried about his team's mindset.

Auburn was fresh off a frenzied finish against Alabama in the Iron Bowl, emotions soaring after Chris Davis' Kick-Six clinched the SEC West and sent the Tigers to Atlanta for a showdown with Missouri. It came two weeks after another incredible finish: Ricardo Louis' Prayer at Jordan-Hare touchdown against Georgia.

Two of the most exciting, and unlikely, finishes in college football occurred in back-to-back games for Malzahn's team. He had his apprehensions about how his team would respond in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.

"You look back at '13 and I was real concerned to get over that because it was so crazy at the end and everything that went," Malzahn said. "I was very concerned, could we have that high of emotion and be able to rebound and play?"

Auburn, of course, throttled Missouri in the conference title game and earned a berth in the BCS National Championship Game, where the Tigers came within 13 seconds of winning it all.

Fast forward to this season, and Malzahn's team finds itself in a similar scenario. The Tigers close the regular season with back-to-back SEC wins against then-No. 1 Georgia and then-No. 1 Alabama to clinch the SEC West and set up a rematch with the Bulldogs in this weekend's SEC title game.

This time around, however, Malzahn doesn't have those same apprehensions about his team's ability to rebound and get up for yet another high-stakes game, with the winner of Saturday's 3 p.m. showdown at Mercedes-Benz Stadium all but assured of a berth in the four-team College Football Playoff Field.

The difference this time around compared to four years go?

"This team is a lot more stable," Malzahn said. "You're definitely concerned, but I feel great about it because when we got in Sunday team meeting, it was flip the page. I mean that was over with. We'll think about how fun that was after the season. They've got the goal, they put it up there the very first day of fall camp, we want to win the SEC Championship and they weren't like shy about it trying to hide it from outside people.

"That's just what our goal was and they put their self out there and now it' right in front of them and we got a mature team. They're not going to be distracted, I'll tell you that."

Senior safety and team leader Tray Matthews believes the high stakes of the SEC Championship Game will make that task easier to accomplish, though he knows the Tigers' defense will have to continue to keep the standard it has set through the first 12 games of the season under defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

There's also the challenge of defeating Georgia for the second time in a considerably short span of time. While the Tigers won the first meeting handily, 40-17, at Jordan-Hare Stadium, they understand this will be a different task -- but they'll be able to lean on their experiences of facing two No. 1 teams in recent weeks to help them prepare.

"The experience of how you got to this point, it helps you, I think," Malzahn said. "From the standpoint of, you know a lot about how your team's going to react in certain situations, because it's going to be a dogfight Saturday, there's no doubt. There's going to be adversity and we've got to overcome it. But I like where we're at and how we've gotten here.

"A lot of times it's how you get to where you're at that can help you moving forward, and we've experienced just a little bit of everything this year, if you really look at it. Hopefully, that'll help on Saturday."

While Auburn has had to get up for two No. 1 teams in recent weeks, the Tigers are confident they won't run out of gas when they face the Bulldogs for the second time in four games, with Malzahn assuring that his team "won't have any kind of emotional letdown" come Saturday.

"It's the SEC Championship," senior offensive lineman Austin Golson said. "If we can't get ready for that then we don't deserve to be there, so I don't think that's going to be an issue at all, us being ready. We're going to get Georgia's best and hopefully we'll give them our best."

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.