The Oldest Rivalry in the Deep South

The UGA/Auburn game this year marks the 113th time the two teams have played. "The Oldest Rivalry in the Deep South", as it is commonly referred to has been extremely competitive over the years (as shown below) but this years' game does not carry the normal "national attention" as it usually does since both teams are in somewhat of a state of flux or transition and the game holds no BCS or other major bowl implications, yet.

Over the past 112 meetings, Auburn holds a 2 game series advantage (53-51) and there have been 8 ties. Out of 3,445 points scored by both, only 49 points separates the two (1747 for UGA, 1698 for Auburn). Also, the visiting team seems to win this game most of the time, which makes picking a winner even more challenging. 25% of Auburn's roster comes from the state of Georgia which always adds to their motivation to do well against their home-state school. UGA has only 2 players on their roster from the state of Alabama.

Auburn's strength is their unique offense, coordinated by well-traveled Gus Malzahn.
Being one of the originators of the "wild (fill in the blank) offense", Coach Malzahn is a legend in the state of Arkansas and was a very successful high school coach in that state. In the college ranks, he has coached at Arkansas and Tulsa, bringing a twist to their offensive schemes and has been called, "one of the sport's most innovative offensive minds, not just in the college ranks, but in all of football". If there's one thing these Bulldogs have trouble with, it's a twist or even a "surprise" from the other team, such as the bootleg pass. (See the UGA vs. UT meltdown of 2009). Auburn's defense, normally a strength has been less than spectacular this year and is suffering through injuries as well as playing people outside of their normal positions. If that sounds familiar, think back to UGA last year. They are fairly solid in areas, but because some players are playing "out of position", they have been prone to give up a big play or two per game.

UGA comes into this game as healthy as they have been for a while. A.J. Green returns from the lung bruise (that even sounds painful) that he suffered while reaching for one of Joe's patented "over the head into triple coverage" throws across the middle of the field against Florida. Auburn has decent cover corners, but they are a bit undersized, as are their safeties, so that might be an area of attack for the Dawgs. I'd like to say that UGA has found their running game and that they have a feature back now in Washaun Ealey, but I have to remember that the most impressive game was against Tennessee Tech. No disrespect to Tennessee Tech, but they are not the Auburn Tigers.

I think UGA got a good confidence boost last week, and will come into this game motivated to, at the very least become bowl eligible (oh boy...game 10 and they are still not bowl eligible...ugh!). I would hope that Mike Bobo and Joe Cox have seen some areas that they can attack and that they will do so early and often. It would be nice to get up on them early in this game, get the crowd into it and put it in the "W" column. These games are typically pretty close, so picking a margin of victory is difficult.

UGA by 12.