Article written by Mike Stowe

The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry will take place Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Athens Georgia. This will be the 123rd meeting in the historic series between the 5th ranked Georgia Bulldogs and the 24th ranked Auburn Tigers. Georgia is coming off a blowout win against Kentucky in which they wrapped up the SEC East championship and will now look forward to a rematch of last year’s national championship against Alabama. Auburn showed last week that they still have some fight left when they mounted an impressive 4th quarter comeback win against a Texas A&M team that was ranked in the top 25. It was a game many were picking Auburn to lose and one they desperately needed to win to cool the hot seat of head coach Gus Malzahn.

As we dive into looking at this game, let’s start off with what we know. Georgia is a better team on paper than Auburn. After the debacle at LSU, the Dawgs have rebounded and won back to back games against top 10 opponents Florida and Kentucky. They seem to be hitting their stride at the right time. Auburn has won back to back games as well against Ole Miss and Texas A&M. They lost to Mississippi State, LSU, and had an absolutely embarrassing loss to the Tennessee Volunteers. Their recent success and the fact that they may be playing for their coach’s job should have them motivated.

So who wins? All week long leading up to the Georgia Florida game, I heard the Gators will upset the Dawgs. I didn’t buy it. Heard the same thing last week leading up to the Kentucky game. I didn’t buy it then either. Auburn has a dangerous front 7 and Derrick Brown is a guy who will play on Sundays. Jarett Stidham hasn’t lived up to the lofty expectations put on him this season, partially due to an offensive line that has not done a good job protecting him, but he is still a good quarterback with playmakers at wide receiver. I just am not seeing how they can compete with Georgia for 4 quarters. Not the way Georgia is playing right now. Not at Sanford Stadium. Georgia is simply a better team than Auburn right now and they will prove it Saturday. Kirby Smart and the players on this team that were a part of the 2017 team haven’t forgotten the 40-17 beatdown they were handed by Auburn at Jordan Hare Stadium last season and the “We beat the dog crap out of them” comments by Malzahn. This game will be interesting until late in the 3rd or early in the 4th quarter. The Dawgs are a 14 point favorite and that sounds about right to me. Another big late touchdown run by DeAndre Swift seals the win for the Dawgs.

PREDICTION- Georgia 35, Auburn 21