It's a game we likely had circled at the start of the year, when Georgia and Auburn were supposed to be playing with SEC Championship hopes on the line.
Now they're playing with the Liberty Bowl on the line, as the Bulldogs come in at 6-3, and the Tigers 5-4.
It's the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry.
The series is tied 55-55-8, so somebody has to come out on top, right?
Let's take a look.
The last time...
1) These teams met:
It was both RB Todd Gurley's triumphant return and his final collegiate game, Georgia hammered Auburn 34-7 in Athens.
The renowned Auburn offense was stonewalled for the better part of 55 minutes. An opening touchdown drive turned out to be their only points in an otherwise uneventful trip to Sanford Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Bulldog RBs kicked it into high gear, with Gurley and Nick Chubb combining for 282 yards and three touchdowns on 48 carries.
Georgia scored the final 34 points in a blowout victory.
2) Georgia's defense allowed a touchdown in the first quarter:
Here's an interesting stat. The Bulldogs haven't surrendered a TD in the first 15 minutes of a game since ... the Belk Bowl. At least not outright on defense.
In the 37-14 win over Louisville, one of the Cardinals' scores came with 4:25 remaining in the first quarter, an 11-yard pass from QB Kyle Bolin to WR Gerald Christian.
Since that day, no team has ever punched it into the endzone on the Bulldog defense within the first quarter.
In fact, the only team to score a touchdown in the first frame was Florida, recovering a muffed punt in the endzone as the clock hit 00:00.
3) Auburn won a conference game at home:
The Tigers haven't beaten an SEC team at home since they knocked off South Carolina in October ... 2014.
Auburn got the ground game going, pushing out 395 yards and five TDs in a 42-35 victory.
The Gamecocks pulled out all the stops, going for it on fourth down six (!!!) times (converting five) and pulling out an onside kick.
Clearly Steve Spurrier trusted his defense.
For the record, this is also the last win on the Plains for Auburn over a Power 5 team. Their only home wins since then have come over Samford, Jacksonville State and San Jose State.
4) Georgia led the series:
A win for the Bulldogs would give them a 56-55-8 lead in the series, their first lead since 1986.
Georgia's 20-16 win gave it a 42-41-7 lead, which was followed by a four-game losing streak in the ensuing years.
The Bulldogs have closed the gap of late, tying the series with their wins in both 2012 and 2014.
5) Auburn lost five regular season games:
A loss would drop the Tigers to 5-5 on the season, notching their first five-loss regular season since 2012, when they finished 2-10.
Since then, the regular season has been a steady decline for the Plainsmen, going 11-1 and 8-4 in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
An Auburn loss would likely put them at 6-6 when it's all said and done, since Idaho and Alabama remain.
And rather than do a "What about six losses?" bonus, I'll just reiterate that they lost 10 games in 2012.
6) Georgia held consecutive conference opponents under 10 points:
I put this into the "possible but not likely" category for two reasons. The first is that the Bulldogs DO sport a pretty good defense—anyone who watched the 9-6 win over Missouri or the 27-3 victory of Kentucky would attest. The second is a lesser defense held a better Auburn offense to 7 points in 2014.
I say it isn't likely to happen because, well, rivalries are weird. 34-7 was quite an outlier in an otherwise tight series.
So, anyway, if Georgia holds Auburn under 10 points it would represent the first time they held consecutive conference opponents to single digits since 2006.
That season saw the Bulldogs open conference play with an 18-0 victory over South Carolina, followed by a 14-9 victory over Ole Miss. Both wins, interestingly, came on the road.
7) Auburn scored less than 20 points and won:
I admit it's difficult to come up with stats for Auburn because, frankly, they tend to hit the extremes with their streakiness. (Case in point: going 2-10 in 2012, then 11-1 in 2013.)
This stat, going back to 2011, admittedly feels like I'm digging deep.
The last time the Tigers scored less than 20 points in a victory came in their 17-6 victory over Florida in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
It was actually their second such victory that year, as they knocked off eventual 11-game winner South Carolina 16-13 in September.
Since then, Auburn has failed to score 20 points 12 times, though 10 of those came in the final six games of 2011 and the entire 2012 season.
Three of those 12? Losses to Georgia in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
8) Georgia held three conference opponents out of the endzone in a single season:
I, again, slide this into the "possible but not likely" category, but hypotheticals are fun.
The Bulldogs have already notched this twice, with their 9-6 win over Missouri and 27-3 win over Kentucky.
If, in their final conference game, Jeremy Pruitt's defense holds Auburn out of the endzone, it would be the first time Georgia did that to three conference foes since 2012, when the Bulldogs held Vandy to 3, Florida to 9 and Auburn to 0.
In case you're wondering, 2012 was the only year since 1976 that happened, when the Dawgs shutout three SEC opponents.
They beat Alabama 21-0, Vanderbilt 45-0 and Auburn 28-0 that year.
9) Will Muschamp beat Georgia twice in a row:
The Tigers' defensive coordinator is, ironically, a UGA alumnus, but has never held a major job at his alma mater.
He is, however, riding a one-game winning streak against the Bulldogs. His last year as head coach at Florida included a surprising 38-20 beatdown of Georgia, ending a three-year losing streak in the series.
A win in this game would be the first time since 2003 that his team beat the Bulldogs twice in a row.
That season, as defensive coordinator under head coach Nick Saban at LSU, Muschamp led a defense that beat Georgia twice: 17-10 in Baton Rouge and 34-13 in the SEC Championship game.
Since then, his only win against the Dawgs was the aforemention Cocktail Party. He lost to Georgia 45-16 in Athens in his final season at LSU (2004), both years he was defensive coordinator under Tommy Tuberville at Auburn (2006, 2007) and then his first three seasons as head coach of the Gators (2011, 2012 and 2013).
Overall, Muschamp is 4-7 against his alma mater, taking into account his time as an Auburn grad assistant.
10) Georgia lost to both Tennessee and Auburn:
For all the griping about Mark Richt (much of which is warranted), you have to give credit where it's due. The man knows how to beat Tennessee and Auburn. (We won't talk about Florida.)
Before Richt arrived, the Bulldogs were 4-9-1 in the previous 15 games against Auburn and 5-10-0 against Tennessee, though the Vols were not a regular opponent until 1988.
Richt is 10-5 against Tennessee through 15 games, and 9-5 against the Tigers through 14.
All that said, Georgia hasn't seen swept by this orange-clad pair since 2004, when they fell 19-14 to the Vols, and 24-6 to eventual 14-0 Auburn.
In the ensuing 10 seasons (not counting this one), the Bulldogs have swept the two rivals four times, and split them six.
***
That's about all we've got for this week.
I suspect this game will come down to the offensive lines; whichever one gets a push to open up a running game will win.
In some ways I could see it being low scoring. In others I could see it being a little higher.
As with this rivarly, you just never know.
Nobody expected a 34-7 beatdown in 2014 as much as they expected the Hail Mary in 2013.
As they say, it's why you play the games.
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