Georgia will have one change on offense in rematch with Auburn

While Georgia and Auburn are only three weeks removed from playing one another, there will be one personnel change on the field for Saturday’s rematch in the SEC Championship.

The Bulldogs are expected to once again start Ben Cleveland at right guard instead of Solomon Kindley. Kindley was Georgia’s starter for most of the season and held the nod entering the first game against Auburn.

The next week in practice, however, Cleveland began taking first-team reps before earning his first career start against Kentucky.

Both Cleveland and Kindley offer a lot of size along the interior offensive line. Cleveland checks in at 6-foot-6 and 340 pounds, and Kindley is 6-foot-4 and 341 pounds. Head coach Kirby Smart said both have still been engaged in a competition, even with Cleveland earning the starting nod the past two weeks.

“Ben's doing a nice job,” Smart said. “He and (Kindley) are still in competition. Each week it's that way at practice. We get after it pretty good at practice. We'll see how it turns out this week in some of the competitions across the board that are still going on out there. We got guys that are playing well, and the guys that play and practice well will be the guys that get to play the most.”

Smart said that the loss to Auburn wasn’t a determining factor for the offensive line’s shakeup. Before the coaching staff made the move to Cleveland at right guard, Smart said he was close to earning a starting role anyway.

Cleveland will be counted on to help improve the offensive line’s performance when it comes to running the ball against a team that held Georgia to only 46 yards on the ground.

“Ben Cleveland, he’s huge,” left tackle Isaiah Wynn said. “He’s been that one guy who you know, for sure, is going to move people.”

This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Georgia will have one change on offense in rematch with Auburn."