Auburn has a great chance to reverse recent luck against Georgia

To be clear, Auburn’s biggest rival remains Alabama. It may be the only thing less civil than Tuesday night’s Presidential debate. Or maybe just a tad more civil.

But the argument can be made that there’s another rivalry of greater importance to the Tigers, that being the series dubbed The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.

It’s one thing to struggle with Alabama. Who doesn’t? But the team that has vexed the Tigers the most -- even more so than the vaunted Crimson Tide -- is the school that is almost more of a sibling rival than hated opponent.

Since 2006, the Tigers have twice the number of wins over Alabama (six) than they do Georgia (three). And that’s with one additional opportunity, the 2017 SEC Championship Game. All three of those wins over the Bulldogs came at home.

The last time Auburn left Athens with a victory was 2005. Facebook was still little more than Mark Zuckerberg’s college toy. Flip phones were all the rage, at least for those who bothered to have a cell phone. Gus Malzahn was with the Bulldogs -- the Springfield High Bulldogs in Arkansas.

Since that 31-30 win in Athens, five of Auburn’s losses to Georgia have been by a touchdown or less. So before the Tigers can worry about surpassing Alabama for state supremacy, they first need to hold their own against the program they consider to be their equal.

Now that Nick Saban has extended Alabama’s recruiting base to all of North America, the Tigers probably go head to head for players with Georgia more than any other school.

How much the outcome of the game influences recruiting is impossible to quantify. But winning the game can only help. With in-person recruiting shut down, the outcome of the game could take on more value.

“We can’t fill up the stands. That’s the best way to impress them,” said Georgia coach Kirby Smart. “Probably the next best way is to play well.”

Saturday night’s game represents perhaps the best opportunity Auburn has had to win in Athens since 2009, when both teams were mired in mediocrity.

The tradition of Georgia and Auburn playing in mid-November is the latest casualty of conference expansion, motivated by greed and television footprints. The addition of Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC forced Georgia and Auburn to flip-flop their home and home arrangement, a nice setup for the Tigers in the odd years but downright treacherous in the even years having to go to Athens and Tuscaloosa within a 14-day span.

Hence the break from tradition and the move of this game to the first Saturday in October. That alone is odd. But the scrambled schedule due to the pandemic makes this Auburn’s first road game of the season and Georgia’s home opener.

The timing couldn’t be better for Auburn. The Bulldogs are still trying to figure things out on offense. New coordinator, nine new starters, and still questions at quarterback. All that’s certain regarding the latter is that they will have a new starter at quarterback after D’Wan Mathis struggled terribly in last Saturday’s season opener at Arkansas.

Will it be Stetson Bennett, the hero of the Arkansas game, or JT Daniels, the transfer from Southern Cal, where he was a productive starter until being sidelined with a knee injury? Bennett looked every bit like the playmaker that coaches and teammates have raved about for his scout team exploits.

But that was Arkansas. This is Auburn. While the Tigers have their own rebuilding to do, they certainly will pose more of a challenge than did the Razorbacks.

So the Tigers will face either a 5-foot-11 (allegedly) former walk-on or a transfer coming off knee surgery and a followup procedure who has been in the Georgia program for all of four months, most of which has been spent social distancing and learning the playbook by Zoom.

Malzahn said of Georgia, “Looking a team that’s probably the most talented team overall in the SEC.” Smart dismissed that as “coach-speak.”

With five more games remaining against ranked SEC teams, the Tigers cannot afford an early conference loss. Especially against the rival it sorely needs to beat.