Georgia Bulldogs Seeking Revenge Down on The Plains

The Georgia Bulldogs had a not so fun time the last time they played in Auburn. The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry will again be played on Saturday afternoon.

The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Auburn Tigers is one of the most storied rivalries in all of college football. Most schools would kill to have this rivalry as their primary one. Both UGA and AU view this as a fantastic secondary rivalry. Georgia tends to hate Florida and Georgia Tech a little more. Auburn loathes Alabama more than anything.

This rivalry is also the closest in terms of win/loss. In the 118 previous meeting between the two schools, it is all tied up at 55-55-8. Though the Georgia Bulldogs have won 7 of the last 9 meetings, the two losses to Auburn are especially painful. Cam Newton was the big man on Auburn’s campus in 2010, beating UGA 49-31 en route to a National Championship.

However that loss pales in comparison to the soul-crushing nature of the 2013 defeat on the Plains. I will forever hate the night of the Prayer at Jordan-Hare, mostly because I was there.

For some reason at that point in the season, Dawg Nation thought we could catch Mizzou if we beat Auburn on their turf for a potential rematch in Atlanta a few weeks later. Though the impossible seemed probable after Aaron Murray’s go-ahead rushing touchdown inside of a minute in the fourth quarter, the worst thing ever besides the 2012 SEC Championship was about to happen. It was that bad.

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It was 4th and 17. All UGA had to do was bat down another errant pass from Auburn QB and former UGA DB Nick Marshall to beat Auburn. Instead Safety Josh Harvey-Clemons decided to play hero ball and tried to pick off Marshall’s short pass. Harvey-Clemons not only botched the interception return, but the ball landed in WR Ricardo Lewis’ outstretched hands for the winning touchdown.

That play was only further amplified by the Kick Six against Alabama a week later. Two straight games of dumb luck to send Auburn to a National Championship. I couldn’t believe that UGA lost that game, but then I remembered one thing: these are the Georgia Bulldogs we’re talking about. Getting emotionally curb stomped by Georgia football in less than one year’s time was starting to get almost comical.

UGA enacted revenge on Auburn at home last season in the super cold, 34-7 on November 15th. Adding injury to insult, that was also the last game of Todd Gurley’s UGA career as he tore his ACL on a non-contact play in the second half of the game.

A Nick Chubb knee injury not even a year later and here we are, about to play Auburn down on The Plains. This game doesn’t have anywhere near the hype of the previous two meetings as UGA only became bowl eligible last week and Auburn still needs one more win to get there. Even though this is a Noon kickoff, I expect the Georgia Bulldogs to remember how truly awful that loss to Auburn was two years ago.

I understand that almost none of that porous UGA secondary from that year remain in Athens, but Senior OLBs Jordan Jenkins and Leonard Floyd surely remember what happened in Jordan-Hare Stadium two years ago.

Next: Georgia Bulldogs: Is 10 Wins Still Possible?

It doesn’t matter if most of the secondary were upper classmen in high school when UGA received another black eye in 2013. The defense will not let this team down in 2015. That’s entirely up to the Wild Dawg offense OC Brian Schottenheimer is running now that the program has little to no faith in the scholarship quarterbacks. Go Dawgs! Beat Auburn!