Georgia and Auburn are both playing for pride, bragging rights after failed expectations

Lofty expectations hovered over Georgia and Auburn's football programs during the preseason. But with both squads preparing for Saturday's annual meeting on The Plains, seven combined losses between the two teams highlight what has been a disappointing season for the two teams.

Georgia and Auburn entered the year considered division title contenders. They both exited the top 25 by the middle of the season. Auburn's chances at an SEC West title were dashed early, with Georgia's second-chance opportunity squandered in a 27-3 loss to Florida two weeks ago.

All that's left to play for is pride and bragging rights. But sometimes, that's all teams need when it comes to a rivalry of this magnitude.

"It's a pride thing," senior tight end Jay Rome said. "We want to win. You never want to go out thinking you're going to lose. If you're a competitor, you're going to win every time you step on the field."

Georgia's seniors pointed out that they don't want to end the season on a sour note, considering what took place through the month of October -- going 1-3 with losses to Alabama, Tennessee and Florida.

Facing Auburn, which has had plenty of issues on both the offense and defense, certainly helps a Georgia team that can still win 10 games if it wins out. Auburn ranks 10th in the SEC in scoring offense (27.1 points per game) and ninth in total offense (379.1 yards). The Tigers are 11th in scoring defense (27.2) and 14th in total defense (430.6).

Defensively, the game plan for Georgia starts with being able to slow down Auburn's rushing attack. Auburn's specialty under head coach Gus Malzahn has been to spread teams out and gash them with a variety of zone-read and power runs. The Bulldogs will have to be ready to defend that at a much higher tempo than they've seen this year, too.

"They're very multiple," inside linebacker Jake Ganus said. "They hide and disguise a lot of things. Malzahn has really perfected that offense. They get athletes the ball in different ways, whoever is playing at quarterback. Rocket motions or anything like that. For us, we have to be conceptually sound, know what our assignments are, know who are keys are, know what you're looking at."

On offense, Georgia will turn to its running attack against an Auburn defense that has allowed an average of 191.2 rushing yards per game. The Bulldogs were especially run-heavy a week ago against Kentucky, totaling 300 yards and mixing in some wild dog formation plays with freshman receiver Terry Godwin at quarterback.

Godwin could be an even bigger factor in this game if Georgia asks him to throw the ball out of the wild dog, which is something Georgia head coach Mark Richt has hinted at this week.

"(Godwin) handles the ball well, and he played a little bit of that kind of thing in high school, a little bit of quarterback in high school," Richt said. "So it was kind of natural for him."

Auburn is coming off its most impressive win of the season, a 26-10 defeat of Texas A&M. That alone raised some eyebrows among Georgia's players.

"They definitely got their charisma back," nose tackle Chris Mayes said. "They played well. They began slow; they were picked as a highly ranked team like us. They just picked up and got the ball rolling. They want to keep momentum like we do."

Georgia and Auburn play what's called the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry, which was first played in 1892. Only eight rivalries are older, and only four have met more often than the 118 games the Bulldogs and Tigers have lined up for. On top of that, Georgia and Auburn are deadlocked at 55-55-8 in the series.

Regardless of how the season has turned out for both programs, Richt believes both teams will be excited to renew this annual rivalry game.

"Right this minute Auburn being Auburn and us being Georgia is enough in my opinion," Richt said. "And that's what we're focusing on. We're focusing on getting ready to play one whale of a football game versus a team that's going to have a tremendous fan base ready to get after us. It's going to be a war. It's going to be a battle. And if you're a competitor, that's usually enough to spark your blood and get your blood pumping."

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Georgia and Auburn are both playing for pride, bragging rights after failed expectations ."