Georgia faces Auburn rematch looking to avenge 23-point loss
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Three weeks isn’t much time at all.
Certainly not enough to forget a 23-point blowout.
Now the question is: Can No. 6 Georgia turn the sting of its lone defeat — not to mention the gleeful boasting of Auburn coach Gus Malzahn — into the sort of controlled anger and nagging motivation that produces a vastly different result in the Southeastern Conference championship game?
No matter how you slice it, that Nov. 11 mismatch at Jordan-Hare Stadium looms large over Saturday’s rematch at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“We’ll have a lot of energy, a lot of emotions,” Georgia linebacker Lorenzo Carter said Monday. “But when it comes down to it, those emotions aren’t going to win the game. It’s how you play.”
No. 4 Auburn (10-2) is playing as well as any team in the country, winning five straight games by an average of 22 points since a seemingly crushing loss to LSU.
That streak includes a 40-17 rout of Georgia , when the Bulldogs were ranked No. 2 by The Associated Press and sitting atop the College Football Playoff standings, and last Saturday’s equally impressive 28-16 victory over topranked Alabama .
Suddenly, the Tigers are a trendy pick to win it all.
But they’ve got to beat Georgia (11-1) for the second time in less than a month.
And Malzahn may come to regret what he said right after the previous meeting. Walking away from his on-field interview with CBS, he was overheard commenting, “We whipped the dog crap out of ‘em, didn’t we!”
The coach wasn’t wrong, considering Auburn outgained the Bulldogs 488230 in total yards and shut down the dynamic running back duo of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.
But those words are sure to be plastered all over the Bulldogs’ training facility this week.
“It is certainly a normal human response to want revenge when we are harmed,” Will Freeman, the track coach at Iowa’s Grinnell College who also teaches sports psychology, wrote in an email. “Can it increase motivation? Yes. Can that motivation go bad? Also, yes. Optimal performance requires the athlete find the optimal level of motivation and excitement for the situation.