I like drivin’ my truck – Auburn preview & game day thread

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Today at 3:30, the 2026 renewal of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry takes place on the hallowed sod of Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium. The top-ranked Dawgs look to win this game for 10th time in a row and establish a level of unimagined in this series. A win today gives Georgia the title of Alabama state champions. For Auburn, Alex Golesh is still looking for that signature year 1 win that lets the Auburn Family know there may be brighter days ahead in Greater Opelika. The big question is whether both sides of the Tiger line of scrimmage will hold up against the best they have seen this year. Let’s get to the preview.

When Georgia has the ball

Given some of Auburn’s issues defending the run against Florida (243 yards) and Tennessee (237), I expect Mike Bobo to challenge his offensive line to bully the Auburn front with the running game to set up the passing game. No one this season has been able to get the Georgia offense off schedule consistently. I don’t think Auburn has the depth in the front 7 to do that either. Therefore, the match-up comes down to whether Auburn can force turnovers or force execution mistakes. Tomorrow would not be a good time for the Georgia offense to regress back into past years’ habit of starting slow and allowing the Auburn defense to get some confidence.

When Auburn has the ball

The Tigers’ offense comes down to whether they can generate a consistent running game against the Georgia front without needing 20+ carries by their quarterback Byrum Brown. After making Keelon Russell miserable last week, the Tarantula, Chris Cole, has a similar assignment to make plays on Brown when they are available. If the Dawgs’ defense forces Brown to stay in the pocket and play from there, I like the defense’s chances to force at least one mistake from the quarterback. Brown made comments earlier in the week that he saw things the Tigers could exploit while watching the Georgia-Alabama game. I would assume Kirby and Schu have had that playing in the defensive meetings throughout the week in preparation for today.

What will happen

I love this match-up for the Dawgs. Without sleepwalking or making mistakes, I really do believe Georgia could put a whipping on Auburn. If Georgia is able to run the ball with similar results to UF and UTK, I just don’t see Auburn stopping the offense if Gunner Stockton can play dealer’s choice. The real question is whether the Dawgs are looking ahead to the rest of the off week especially after a tough game in Tuscaloosa last Saturday.

My opinion is that the leadership of this team keeps this group focused 60 minutes, and the Dawgs win easily. I also think Auburn may get the back door cover against the young pups.

Final score: Georgia 33, Auburn 14

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

This also serves as the Georgia game day thread, so keep it civil.

Your ND (Non-Dawg) Game Day Post

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Pretty full slate of games today, and a lot of good ranked matchups to watch, too. Let’s start with the SEC schedule.

Florida at Texas to start the day, but one I’d anticipate should go Texass’s way if Agent Muschamp’s way. Florida has nearly no defense to show for anything and word has it Aaron Philo-Dough is on the injured list, so the Gayturds will have to turn to Tramell Jones.

Mississippi State and LSU should be a good one, but it’s the same scenario as above. Kamario Taylor might play, albeit not at 100%, which could spell trouble for the Bizzaro Dogs in Baton Rouge. If the Auburn game gets out of hand and Gunner’s on the bench by the third quarter, you can flip channels to see if there will righteous retribution for last week’s “stolen game” as Alabama hopes to break there one loss streak against the Hillbillies.

Kentucky at Oklahoma should be an interesting one. Oklahoma got away with one last week and has a full head of steam, but Will Stein has become the darling of the SEC and has Big Blue Nation believing in something other than Basketball again. Can an average SEC team that’s benefitted greatly from turnovers keep up the luck against Oklahoma? John Mateer, enter stage left…and leave the ball back on the ground.

And now…for the rest of the day’s games.

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How I’m watching, or what I’m watching, if I can find the time and attention today:

Early Games:

Probably toggling between the B1G game of the year between Ohio State and Indiana, hoping for a Buckeye win, then hate watching Florida and Texas. I suspect the LSU game won’t be much of a contest without Kamari Taylor. But you might be able to see Jaden Rashada, so that could be the most interesting thing of that game.

Midday:

Definitely Auburn at Georgia and the Gumps v Hillbillies, but I have a hunch that Mizzou v Ole Miss is where the money’s at for a good game. Mizzou can run the ball and Florida ran all over Ole Miss, but Ole Miss can ball and will test Mizzou’s defense. This could be Drinkwitz’s high water mark on the season and I’m interested to see if they can capitalize. Also interesting because I don’t think I’ve seen Mizzou on the road once this year, but I don’t pay much attention to them.

Night Games:

FSU at Miami, only because it’s laughable that it’s come down to Norvell forever because FSU doesn’t have the dough to do anything about it. I’ll likely tune in to Kentucky and Oklahoma more than Notre Dame at BYU, and I personally hope a lot of people opt to go to the movies and not watch and drive the ratings down, if for anything else to help the CFP committee realize that more games between teams who don’t normally get to the CFP would increase eyes on the TV and more revenue.

Red Eye:

Oregon and Nebraska is your latest game and close to midnight. That’s not exciting, because when you’ve replaced the Hawaii game against anybody for that slot, and it’s no more interesting, you’ve lost, B1G.

Praying to see Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, and Tech all lose on one day. Could be a glorious one.

So what’re you watching?

Your Gameday Reminder that Auburn Sucks

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Hey, remember when this guy, a legacy QB on the Plains was heralded as the second coming for the War Eagles, only to transfer to Oregon and do substantially better and make it to the NFL?

This is Bo Nix, former Auburn quarterback and son of a bitch son of Patrick Nix, another former Auburn QB and coach

Well, things are going well now.

You can take the man out of Auburn, but you can’t take the Auburn out of the man.

Auburn sucks.

We’re Going 7-5, But Hoping for 8-4

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Imagine a College Football Championship playoff that includes the 2011 Georgia team in the brackets. You remember, it was this one:

Well, that’s exactly what you’re getting now. Great isn’t it?

Well, let’s look at a short list of teams with 4 losses that would make the 24 team CFP format now:

4-LOSS TEAMS: Dating back to the beginning of the CFP in 2014, if you put a 24-team format in place 37 4-loss teams would’ve made a playoff appearance.

2014

  1. Auburn
  2. Utah
  3. LSU
  4. USC

2015

  1. Tennessee

2016

  1. Auburn
  2. Florida
  3. Utah
  4. LSU
  5. Tennessee
  6. Virginia Tech
  7. Pitt

2017

  1. Stanford
  2. Mississippi State
  3. NC State

2018

  1. Texas
  2. Utah
  3. Mississippi State
  4. Texas A&M
  5. Northwestern
  6. Missouri
  7. Iowa State

2019

  1. USC
  2. Virginia

2020 – NONE

2021

  1. Arkansas
Yeah, THAT Arkansas. Although the team did have a good season, by Arkansas standards.

2022

  1. LSU
  2. South Carolina
  3. Texas
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Mississippi State
  6. NC State

2023

  1. Oregon State
  2. Oklahoma State
  3. Tennessee
  4. Clemson

2024 – NONE

2025

  1. Iowa
  2. Duke

Good stuff, huh.

I’d be excited about this if I were a Mississippi State fan.

But I’m not.

Let’s Focus on Getting Hosed

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Alright…enough of the CFP expansion bruhaha. Let’s lock back in and remember that it’s Auburn hate week, and focus on what really matters tomorrow.

Lest we forget…

And remember, because of this moment above, it sparked a scrappy Georgia grandson to honor his grandad and go out and do this:

Auburn Sucks…and Go Dawgs!

David Hale gets it right

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The former Georgia beat writer goes “hammer meet nail” with this TwiX.

ESPN appeared to be happy with the 12-team model. For all that we say about Disney, they have the data that shows what the value of the additional games really is as opposed to what the expansionists think. They seemed to see only incremental value over their relationship with existing conference championship games (the SECCG is still a viewership monster). On that, how is Fox going to change the financial relationship with the Big 10 as a result of losing their championship game? The players? Don’t get a say on this.

If you go to the TwiX, here’s the kicker:

“It’s entirely to appease the people donating the money that keeps a financially irresponsible business model afloat. It’s discounting success so schools can say ‘look what your donation bought.’

“It’s an industry hellbent on treating investors and bosses as the customer, and customers as an infinite resource that will keep coming back no matter what.”

Don’t those last 2 paragraphs sound like the brass in Charlotte at NASCAR telling their customers that those who would go to Rockingham and Darlington every year will watch the races in Miami, Chicago, and California?

A Three Peat, For the Last SEC Title

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As EE shared yesterday, the bloating of the college football playoffs continue unabandoned, and leaves us with something like this:

Let that sink in for a second.

First, the same Texas team that just choked the Red River Rivalry to an Oklahoma team with a one-armed and possibly one-eyed quarterback gets a bye. Ditto Alabama, who just lost to the 1 seed and likewise gets a bye game.

Second, if this is being done for views and TV revenue, I’m not sure what kind of pull you’re going to get for Boise v Texas Tech, Wake v UCLA, Ok State v Kentucky, or I don’t even know I’d watch Ole Miss vs SMU. And in all honesty, if these were played, what would be the likely lines?

Using Sagarin’s Home Advantage Ratings for these games:

SMU @ Ole Miss (-14)

Boise @ TTU (-13)

LSU (-1) @ Utah

Wake Forest @ UCLA (-9)

Houston @ Missouri (-7)

USC @ Tennessee (-6)

Ok State @ Kentucky (-6)

Iowa @ Mississippi State (-3)

Four matchups are a touchdown or better spread, and only two are considered close shaves or matchups that would be competitive.

What is does do, for whatever reason, is get more “conference representation”. The SEC swells to 9 teams, the B1G 5, the Big XII to 5, ACC to 3, one G6 and one independent.

Let that sink in for a minute…the Big XII has as many teams as the B1G. That’s not only laughable for busting the narrative of “the best conference in college football” (per B1G idiots) but it’s also laughable because the Big XII is a smidge more respectable than the ACC, and some of that could implode this weekend if Notre Dame takes care of business versus the Mormons.

The other thing to consider is this – instead of watching the SECCG to cap the season, you’ll be tuning in to Wake Forest at UCLA, instead. What a trade-off!

I’m sure Greg Sankey endorses this, especially since he doesn’t like having to face Kirby Smart on the awards stage after he got roasted in 2024.

Maybe this is something Kirby saw coming, and maybe that’s why he’s emphasized so heavily winning the SEC Championship Game as a measure of real success for a team. Can’t say I blame him, since it’s the toughest conference (see graphic above) to navigate through the season and claim a crown. No other conference can say that, but let’s neuter one more thing from the college football season that a team could claim as success.

Also, it was a game that brought eyes to the TV, not that that’s the most important thing.

Maybe people will actually protest this with their donations and their viewership, but I doubt that the CFP and Networks care. Hell, when they talked about forming the Super League in European soccer, folks actually went out and protested.

Maybe folks can show up at College Gameday and do this, instead of cute catchy signs. I’d actually watch again if they did.

If this year shapes up to be the last SEC Championship Game, it’d be a nice souvenir if Kirby could collect one more trophy, and one more ring.

No one else can claim to the be the last SEC Championship Game winner…not even Nick Saban.

Citizens of Bitchville

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Good grief.

First, even if DPI was called, there’s no guarantee the game turns out any different.

Second, Tyler Simmons. Where was Fansville then?