The Opening Drive: Auburn at No. 5 Georgia

AUBURN, Ala. – “Your destiny is not a mystery. It’s a decision.” 

Coming off another tough loss to Oklahoma last Saturday, Hugh Freeze stood in the team room this week and delivered that message to his players. Where do you go from here? It doesn’t get any easier with a road trip to No. 5 Georgia coming this weekend. How do you respond? 

We work together. We grow together.#WarEagle🦅 pic.twitter.com/1I2ERUmhPH

— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) October 2, 2024

Yes, the Oklahoma loss hurt. Freeze said as much during his Monday press conference. But he also pointed out how there were plenty of positive takeaways from that game to build from.  

“If you look at 90 percent of the plays, there are a lot of really good things that I hope can carry over as we get ready for a top ranked team in Georgia,” Freeze said. “We certainly can't let the hurt and the sting of losing a game that you feel like you should have won carry too long because we've got some very tough tasks facing us coming up with two top 10 teams on the road. 

“October is a road challenge for us. We haven't experienced that yet. About 50 percent of the guys we’re playing are young guys, and they haven't experienced what we're getting ready to experience. So, that's going to be a challenge for us, but one that that we're looking forward to.”

After five straight home games to open the season, Georgia will be the first road test for the Tigers. There are challenges with playing on the road, but it can also help bring teams together. 

“We’re going in there together,” quarterback Payton Thorne said. “It’s all of us vs. all of them. There’s something about relationships with shared adversity. Your relationships grow through shared adversity. That will be something – with the crowd noise and hearing what all their fans have to say in a raucous environment – that is a form of shared adversity. I think that we’ll grow through this experience, and it will be good for us.”

Thorne is coming off arguably his best game of the season after going 21 of 32 for 338 yards and three touchdowns against one of the better defenses in the country in Oklahoma. 

For Thorne and the entire offense, limiting turnovers will once again be critical against this week. 

Saturday’s game will kick off at 2:45 p.m. CT from Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. The game will be televised on ABC with Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath on the call. You can also listen to Andy Burcham, Jason Campbell, Ronnie Brown and Will Herring who will have the radio call on 94.3 FM, online at AuburnTigers.com and on the Auburn app. 

THREE QUESTIONS WITH TE LUKE DEAL

Q: You’re one of the captains. How important is leadership right now when things aren’t going the way you might have envisioned? 

A: We talked about it the other day. We had a players meeting and just talked about, ‘OK, what do you want this team to look like? Do you want this team to be good only when good things are happening? Because that is just (being) front-runners. We don’t want to be front-runners.’ In our opinion, we have to take action. The only way during an adverse situation to get yourself out of that situation is by taking action. I told the guys the other day before the game. You have a choice to be ordinary or extraordinary. Making that daily choice and drawing a line in the sand, saying this is what we’re going to do whether we’re up or we’re down or we’re somewhere in the middle – being consistent in the way that you deal with things, that’s our approach right now.

Q: How close are you to one of those signature wins? 

A: Extremely close. Painfully close. I was telling somebody the other day. It would be different if you didn’t see as much out of your team. If you don’t really have as much potential. But we see the potential. We see the growth each and every game. We see what we can do. Our coaches turn on the good-bad tape, and we see what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong and what we can fix to make it just that much better. I think we’re painfully close. These losses have been really painful for our team, but they’ve been motivation for our team to get one of these signature wins. And I think we’re really close.

Q: How do you feel like going on the road and playing at Georgia could help this team?

A: For one, it just brings the team together. When you go somewhere on a long trip – granted, some of these trips aren’t as long this year – but when you go on the road with your guys, knowing that it’s you against the world, you really have that feeling of, ‘I can’t let this guy down.’ Because he’s depending on me. He’s only one of 80 people against 100,000 in the stadium that’s depending on me. I personally enjoy going into hostile environments on the road. I’m kind of a football junkie. Growing up, seeing all these different stadiums, being able to play in all these different stadiums, with the fans screaming at you, I think it’s pretty fun. I really do. I think some of our young guys are going to have to embrace it to start but then start to settle in.

INSIDE THE SERIES: GEORGIA

In the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, first played in 1892, Auburn trails the all-time series 56-64-8. The Tigers own a winning record in Athens (18-17) while Georgia has a winning mark on the Plains (19-12-2). Auburn is 17-24-1 against ranked Georgia teams all-time (8-9 in Athens), and the Bulldogs are 16-28-1 vs. the Tigers when they are ranked (13-6 in Athens).

The series is older than Georgia-Georgia Tech (116 games) and Auburn-Alabama (88). Auburn and Georgia first met in 1892 at Atlanta’s Piedmont Park. Each first played its in-state rival in 1893.

The two teams did not play in 1943 because Auburn did not field a team due to World War II, and they did not play in 1917 and 1918 because of World War I and the subsequent influenza outbreak. With those exceptions, Auburn and Georgia have played continuously since 1898.

The Auburn-Georgia series is tied for the second-most played series in college football behind only Wisconsin-Minnesota (132) and tied with North Carolina-Virginia (128) entering this season.

BY THE NUMBERS

13: With three touchdown passes against Oklahoma, Auburn has now thrown a touchdown pass in 13 straight games dating back to last season. It’s the longest streak since the Tigers threw a touchdown pass in 15 straight games in 2018-19. 

10: Senior tight end Luke Deal made it 10 different Auburn players who have caught a touchdown pass this season with his diving 1-yard grab against Oklahoma on Saturday. The Tigers continue to lead the country in that category. KeAndre Lambert-Smith also caught a touchdown Saturday and still leads the SEC with six touchdown receptions on the season. 

200: Against Oklahoma, defensive back Jerrin Thompson recorded his 200th career tackle. He joins fellow transfer Dorian Mausi as the only two current Tigers to have 200 or more tackles during their collegiate careers. 

• Dorian Mausi (216; 193 at Duke)
• Jerrin Thompson (200; 176 at Texas)

0: With three road trips coming up in October, it will be the first time since 2019 and just the second time since 1949 that Auburn will play zero home games during the month of October. It’s also the first time since 2019 that the Tigers will play three straight SEC road games (10/5 at Georgia; 10/19 at Missouri; 10/26 at Kentucky).