Man, it is good to be back home.
Georgia hasn't graced the field Between the Hedges since it moved to 6-0 against Vanderbilt, back on Oct. 6.
Think of all that happened since then.
There was the good: Getting ranked wins over one-loss Florida and Kentucky teams.
The bad: only scoring 16 points on the road against LSU.
And the ugly: Giving up 36 points to the Tigers, who then got shutout by Bama two weeks later.
But all that's in the past now. It time for our least favorite cousin Auburn to come to Athens in a game that actually has no implications in terms of the SEC Championship race, but certainly could prove to be a final stumbling block for the Dawgs playoff hopes.
The last time...
1) These teams met:
Less than a year ago, Georgia met Auburn in what would become the first of three consecutive games the Tigers would play in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
In the 2017 SEC Championship, the Bulldogs "Revenge Tour" added another notch to its belt, knocking off the only opponent to beat them in the regular season, avenging a 40-17 loss with a 28-7 victory.
It sent Georgia to the College Football Playoff, and sent Auburn to a Suagr Bowl loss to 2017 National Champion UCF.
2) Georgia lost at home to the SEC West:
Lately, the Bulldogs have been consistent, if nothing else, against the West.
Kirby Smart, in fact, is 2-0 against the West when the game is played in Athens, winning by an aggregate 44-10.
By contrast, he is 0-3 against the West on the road, losing by an aggregate 121-50.
So to find the answer to this question, we need to dive back into the Mark Richt era — to a game involving Smart.
In 2015, Alabama came to Athens and left with a 38-10 win.
Smart would be named the Bulldogs head coach less than two months later.
3) Auburn got swept by the SEC East:
I promise this will be the last SEC East/West stat, but I wanted to sneak it in here so I could write this sentence:
The Tigers are already 0-1 against the East this year, with a 30-24 loss to Tennessee on the ledger. (Yes, that Tennessee.)
A loss Saturday would drop Auburn to 0-2 against the East, a spot it hasn't reached since 2012, when the Tigers finished 3-9, including losses to Vanderbilt 17-13 and Georgia 38-0.
4) Georgia lost to Auburn at home:
Growing up, the main state I always heard about the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry was the "road field advantage."
Fluky things always seemed to happen in favor of the road team, like Jasper Sanks getting stuff at the 1-yard line as the clock expired in Athens in 2001, or David Greene lofting a 4th down, do-or-die, SEC East-clinching touchdown pass to Michael Johnson in 2002.
All that is to say: It's been more than a decade since the Dawgs fell victim to such tomfoolery at home.
In 2005, Devin Aromashodu hauled in a clutch 4th down pass from Brandon Cox to set up the Tigers go-ahead field goal in the waning seconds, giving them a 31-30 victory.
Since then, it's been all Georgia, with the Bulldogs reeling off five consecutive home wins in the series.
5) Auburn beat a ranked opponent on the road:
Since the start of 2015, Gus Malzahn is 8-11 against ranked opponents.
Not bad, but certainly not great.
Where this stat takes a turn is when you crunch it by location. At home, the Tigers are 6-5 against ranked teams.
Away from home, it isn't as pretty. Neutral sites and true road games are 1-3 apiece.
The only true road win over a ranked opponent came in 2015, when Auburn knocked off No. 25 Texas A&M on the road. Since then, the Plainsmen are 0-3 in road games against ranked foes.
BONUS: What about a Top 10 opponent?
The last Top 10 team to lose at home to Auburn was No. 4 Ole Miss in 2014.
In the infamous look-away-as-they-show-Laquon-Treadwell's-leg-breaking-again-on-replay game, the Tigers escaped Vaught Hemingway Stadium with a 35-31 win.
6) Georgia surrendered more than 7 points to Auburn in Sanford Stadium:
When the Gus bus comes to town, it tends to run out of gas.
Chris Todd was the last Aubie signal caller to score more than 7 points on the Dawgs defense in Athens.
We'll blame that one on Willie Martinez, though his D did get one final stop to preserve a 31-24 victory.
Since then, Georgia hasn't lost at home to the Tigers, winning by final scores of: 45-7, 34-7 and 13-7.
Heck, let's throw in last year's SEC Championship game, too: 28-7.
7) Auburn didn't play an eventual participant of the National Championship Game:
The Tigers have played five teams (six if you count an extra game against Georgia last year) in the past three seasons that went on to play for the national title, including match-ups with both participants of the 2016 and 2017 National Championship Game.
2014 is the last time Auburn failed to play a participant in college football's final game, when Oregon and Ohio State played for it all.
Still, that team had to play against an Alabama team that made the College Football Playoff.
8) Georgia beat both Florida and Auburn in the regular season:
It's been a half-dozen years since the Bulldogs knocked off both the Gators and Tigers in the regular season.
In 2012, Georgia squeaked by Will Muschamp's best Florida team ever, 17-9, and then blew out Auburn 38-0 on The Plains.
Since then, the Dawgs have either lost to the Gators (2014, '15 and '16) or the Tigers ('13 and '17), but never to both, strangely enough.
(Losing to both hasn't happened since 2010, if you're wondering.)
9) The winner of a game involving Auburn had more first downs than the loser:
The Tigers are on a very strange streak. In their past three games, the team that gained the most first downs lost.
Last week against Texas A&M, Auburn was out-first-downed (Is that a word?) 28-13, and yet won the game 28-24.
The week prior, the Tigers gained 20 first downs, seven fewer than Ole Miss, which it beat 31-16.
Three games ago, Tennessee beat Auburn 30-24, despite making 16 first downs to the Tigers' 22.
But four games ago, the script was different, as Mississippi State out-first-downed (It's a word.) Auburn 22-14, and the Bulldogs subsequently won the game 23-9.
10) Georgia beat the same Auburn quarterback two times in a row:
This is actually the third time the Bulldogs will take on Jarrett Stidham since 2017, with Georgia winning the second round 28-7 in the SEC Championship Game.
A win Saturday would give the Dawgs an accomplishment they haven't achieved since 2007, when they beat Brandon Cox for the second year in a row.
Cox started the aforementioned 31-30 Auburn win in 2005, then got blasted 36-15 and 45-20 in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
Since then, Georgia has only played one Tiger quarterback twice: Nick Marshall, who got a win in 2013 and a loss in 2014.
***
The line for this game has been hovering around 13.5 points for much of the week.
I worry that Auburn's defensive line may wreak some havoc (a la LSU) and keep this game tight into the second half, forcing Georgia to throw it.
Still, it's a game that, should the Dawgs play the way they did against Florida and Kentucky, should be a comfortable one.
I'll take a close cover.
Georgia 34, Auburn 20
