<\/p>\n The oldest rivalry in the Deep South comes back to Athens this afternoon. One side is No. 1 in the country and the other is trying to find out who it is.<\/p>\n Georgia is 6-0 and 4-0 in the SEC, ranked first in both the AP and Coaches polls after last week’s 20-17 escape from Tuscaloosa. Auburn is 3-2 in Alex Golesh’s first season, coming off an open date. The Tigers beat Baylor by a point and Vanderbilt by six, lost a 44-39 shootout to Florida and lost 24-14 at Tennessee. Kickoff is 3:30 Eastern on ESPN, and the folks who set the numbers have Georgia by 19 and a half.<\/p>\n Georgia has won nine in a row over Auburn, counting the 2017 SEC Championship Game. That was the afternoon in Atlanta that settled the score from a loss on the Plains three weeks earlier. Kirby Smart is 10-1 against Auburn, and Georgia paid back his one loss inside a month. The series goes back to 1892. Georgia leads it 66-56-8, which means the two schools have spent more than a century arguing and still haven’t finished.<\/p>\n Last year’s meeting is the one to remember if you’re inclined to get comfortable. Georgia trailed 10-3 at halftime on the Plains and came home a 20-10 winner. Smart called this year’s Tigers “a really tough, physical football team on both sides of the ball.” He said Golesh is “doing a great job coming in and taking over the program.”<\/p>\n Auburn’s offense runs through quarterback Byrum Brown, a South Florida transfer who would rather run than throw. At Tennessee he carried 19 times for 107 yards and turned it over three times, two interceptions and a fumble. A quarterback like that keeps a defense honest for three quarters and keeps his own coach up at night for the fourth.<\/p>\n The Tigers will play without their best linebacker. Golesh ruled out Xavier Atkins on Monday for reasons the program is keeping “in-house.” Atkins had 37 tackles, three sacks and an interception this year after 84 tackles and nine sacks last season. De’Marcus Riddick, back from a shoulder injury that ended his 2025, is expected to take a bigger share. Auburn also listed offensive lineman Tai Buster and tight end Hunter Herring as out.<\/p>\n Georgia’s injury report has been longer than its patience. Chauncey Bowens, Isiah Canion, Thomas Blackshear, Amaris Williams and Tyriq Green are all out. All-American safety KJ Bolden went from questionable on Wednesday to doubtful on Thursday, and Friday’s report ruled him out with a right-leg injury. Kyron Jones and Rasean Dinkins are the likeliest answers at safety.<\/p>\n The good news is Nate Frazier. He has stayed off the report all week after warming up at Alabama and not playing with a rib injury. If he goes, the question is how much. Dwight Phillips Jr. carried the load in Tuscaloosa, 17 times for a career-high 120 yards, and Georgia ran for 206 as a team. Whoever lines up behind Gunner Stockton this afternoon has a standard to meet.<\/p>\n Moneyball’s simulation, run 100,000 times, comes out Georgia 30, Auburn 20. Georgia wins 73 percent of the time but covers the 19 and a half only 27 percent of the time. Take that as a floor, not a pick. The model doesn’t weigh who a team has played, and Georgia’s averages include blowouts of Tennessee State and Western Kentucky. ESPN’s predictor, which does weigh it, gives Georgia a 90.5 percent chance. The total sits at 49.5.<\/p>\n The weather won’t be an excuse for anybody: sunny, upper 60s, a north wind of 10 to 15 miles an hour. After last week’s hurricane watch in Tuscaloosa, that’s practically a gift.<\/p>\n Georgia should win this game, and the numbers agree. Auburn needs Brown to make plays nobody planned for and a Georgia turnover or two at the wrong time. It has happened before in this series. It just hasn’t happened in nine years.<\/p>\n Go Dawgs.<\/p>\n \u2014 The RFA Sports Desk<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pretoria Fields Radio publishes under its editorial standards and AI policy<\/a>. Spot an error? Write info@pretoriafieldsradio.com and we will correct it in the open.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n![\"Title](\"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/nine-straight-and-auburn-still-gets-a-vote-card.png\")
Nine straight, if you’re counting the way we count<\/h2>\n
What Auburn brings, and what it doesn’t<\/h2>\n
Georgia’s backfield, by subtraction<\/h2>\n
What the numbers say<\/h2>\n
Sources<\/h3>\n
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