The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wild West hasn't been kind to dogs
UGA’s past three losses have been to teams from SEC’s other division.
ATHENS — For all of Georgia’s success since the start of last season, the Bulldogs have a losing record against the SEC West during that time.
They are 2-3 against Western Division opponents, including postseason games, and 19-0 against everyone else.
Within the next month, Georgia has two games against West teams — Auburn on Saturday night at Sanford Stadium and, as you might have heard, Alabama on Dec. 1 in the SEC Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Bulldogs are trying hard this week to suppress any thoughts of the latter while keeping full focus on the former.
“You can’t skip to anything,” Georgia tailback Elijah
Holyfield said. “You have to go through your schedule. Auburn’s a really good team, and we’re focused on them.”
The game will be Georgia’s third in a 52-week span against Auburn, the first time in the series’ 126-year history the rivals have met that frequently that quickly. The teams collided twice last season, Auburn winning by 23 points in the regular season and Georgia prevailing by 21 in the SEC Championship game.
The split with Auburn contributed to Georgia’s 2-2 record against the SEC West last season. The Bulldogs defeated Mississippi State in a regular-season game and lost to Alabama in overtime in the national championship game.
Georgia is 0-1 against the West this season, losing 36-16 at LSU on Oct. 13, to drop their record below .500 since the start of last season against the division.
By contrast, during the same period, the Bulldogs are 12-0 vs. the SEC East and 7-0 against non-SEC opponents, including marquee wins last season at Notre Dame and in a Rose Bowl playoff semifinal against Oklahoma in double overtime.
Last season, the Bulldogs were undefeated and ranked No. 1 by the CFP selection committee before they lost 40-17 at Auburn on Nov. 11. Three weeks later, the teams met again in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with Georgia winning 28-7 and advancing to the playoff.
“The win was obviously sweet,” Georgia defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter said, “but we still remember that loss.” Asked if there are lessons from last season’s disparate results against Auburn that are relevant this week, UGA defensive back J.R. Reed said: “That anything can happen. … They were predicted to beat us (in the SEC Cham- pionship game), and we beat them. We were predicted to beat them (in the regu- lar season), and they beat us. So anything can happen this game. Predictions don’t matter. What they’ve done this season doesn’t matter, and what we’ve done this season doesn’t matter. All that matters is Saturday.”
Oddsmakers have Geor- gia, ranked No. 5 by the College Football Playoff selection committee, as a 14.5point favorite over No. 24 Auburn this time.
The Tigers are 6-3 (3-3 SEC) and tied for third place in the Western Division. They opened the season with a promising win over Wash- ington, ranked No. 6 in the nation at the time, in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game in Atlanta. But they subse- quently lost to LSU, Mississippi State and Tennessee. They have won their past two games, including a come- from-behind victory over Texas A&M.
Georgia players don’t appear to be using last year’s regular-season loss to Auburn as fuel t his week, in part because they already avenged it in the higher-stakes rematch three weeks later.
“We have enough motiva- tion in what we have going this year,” Holyfield said. “We have a chance to play for more things down the road.”
While Georgia’ s SEC Championship game berth is assured, the Bulldogs (8-1, 6-1 SEC) need to win their remaining three regular-sea- son games to stay within close proximity of a playoff berth entering the league title game against Alabama.
“To get to where we want to be,” offensive tackle Andrew Thomas said, “we have to win out every week from here on out.”
“We want to write our story a certain way,” Ledbetter said. “We want to win every game possible. This week is all we’re worried about. The SEC Championship game will come, you know. That has its own time. But at this moment, our main focus and 100 per- cent efforts are going into the Auburn game.”