Tidbit Info on the Auburn War

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Tigers looking to slow another top running game
Monday, November 05, 2007
CHARLES GOLDBERG
News staff writer

AUBURN - The team that has held four of its last five opponents to a touchdown or less and ranks first in the Southeastern Conference in scoring defense has another big-time running back to handle Saturday.
Auburn has been down this road before. The Tigers are turning their attention to Georgia's resurgent running game after shutting down Arkansas' mighty rushing attack a month ago.
The Tigers held Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and the Razorbacks' high-powered running game to 67 yards on Oct. 13. That's an impressive stat, especially this week, if you consider McFadden rushed for an SEC-record-tying 321 yards and the Razorbacks rolled up 541 yards on the ground against South Carolina on Saturday night.
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Monday, November 5th, 2007...7:59 am
Sometimes statistics don’t lie, they just don’t say much.
With Saturday’s win over the “it’s just a flesh wound” Troy Trojans, Georgia is now 7-2 overall, 4-2 in the conference, first in the SEC East and 10th in the BCS standings.
All of which sounds pretty special, right? Yet, statistically speaking, Georgia doesn’t look particularly special - good or bad - doing anything. The NCAA measures teams in seventeen categories, and Georgia ranks between 28th and 51st in twelve of them. The worst national ranking the Dawgs sport is 80th in total offense; their best is punt returns, where they’re 12th.
It’s a similar story in the conference. Georgia ranks somewhere between third and seventh in all but four of those same categories in the SEC. Its worst showing is in pass efficiency defense, where it’s tenth (which is no big surprise, considering the offenses it’s played in its last two games).
So why does the whole seem greater than the sum of its parts? Mainly, I think, because the coaching staff has been very careful on offense to focus on maintaining control. Georgia still ranks first in the SEC and in the country in giveaways, with nine. It’s middle of the pack in penalties (in fact penalty yardage applied against that of opponents is a virtual wash so far this year). And even with the pick in the end zone on Saturday, Georgia still has the most efficient offense in the red zone in the SEC (94.1%!).
That all being said, going in to the second week of November, there is one stat that jumps off the page at me:
11 sacks allowed in nine games? Third in the SEC? Those of you that called that in the preseason, please step forward. I know I sound like a broken record on this, but the job Stacey Searels continues to do this season is nothing short of remarkable.
But Stafford has a quick release, that in itself has saved a few. Also, Bobo did a great job scheming around it early on. Well, scheming around being sacked, I don’t know about overall. The OL has been phenomenal considering their youth though.
The play of the OL this year is phenomenal, indeed. Searels has proven to be a great coaching addition.
Now if we can get the defense playing to a higher level some wacky things may happen in the wackiest season of whacked-out football ever.
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Auburn vs. Georgia: Intensity without hostility
Posted by Phillip Marshall, The Huntsville Times November 04, 2007 11:42 PM
Auburn and Georgia will get together Saturday at Sanford Stadium for the 111th renewal of the Deep South's longest-running college football rivalry. Since Auburn won 10-0 in Atlanta in 1892, Auburn and Georgia have played season but 1943. Because of World War II, neither fielded a team that season.

It's as intense and hard-hitting as they come. That's a good thing. But a better thing is that there is a distinct lack of hostility between the two schools and two programs. Auburn leads the series 53-49-8. Amazingly, after all those games, the two teams are separated by just 20 points. Georgia has scored 1,685 points. Auburn has scored 1,665.
So many Auburn men have succeeded at Georgia and so many Georgia men have succeeded at Auburn that it really is something like competition between brothers. Vince Dooley was an Auburn quarterback who became a Georgia coach and won six SEC championships. Pat Dye was a Georgia guard who became an Auburn coach and won four SEC championships.
It's been that way since Shug Jordan left Georgia's staff to become head coach at Auburn in 1951. It's still that way today. Georgia's offensive line is coached by Stacy Searels, who played offensive tackle at Auburn. Auburn's offensive line is coached by Hugh Nall, who played center and won a national championship at Georgia. Auburn's defense is coordinated by Will Muschamp, who lettered for four years as a Georgia defensive back. Georgia's defensive line is coached by Rodney Garner, who helped Auburn win an SEC championship as a hard-nosed offensive guard.
Championships have been won, Heisman Trophies clinched and legends born in Auburn-Georgia games over the years. Another chapter will be written Saturday afternoon. It should be a game to remember. Most of them are.

Good Post DawgSpeare. As an \"Old Fart\" I lived in Columbus, Georgia when the rivalry of these two teams was played at Memorial Stadium in Columbus. Was sort of a \"Jacksonville\" type meeting between AU and UGA, much like Gators and Dawgs. Auburn still recruits heavily in that area and has had a lot of success. Hoping that we come out with a lot of intensity, it will take a lot to move the ball on AU. I believe that with our running attack building like it is, it will allow our receivers some choice openings against the Tigers . . . . certainly hope so . . .Go Dawgs!

As a kid growing up in West Georgia, there were many Auburn fans, especially when we lived in LaGrange, kind of a 50/50 split with Georgia. Historically similar programs, however, I always hated Auburn, still do. Go Dawgs!

Great Post DawgSpeare! Thinking & hoping that you're right on Buc!
The Auburn rivalry is my personal favorite. Part of that reason is the long history, part is the proximity of the two schools and the crossover of players & coaches, part is because I grew up in Newnan, GA only about 1+ hour from AU campus, but the main reason for me is because my Dad went to AU in the late 50's and my misguided sister is a die-hard War Eagle fan. I remember watching the games as a kid throughout the 1980's sitting on my UGA bean-bag while my Sis sat on her AU bean-bag. Every year the game involved harsh words between us, lots of yelling & cheering, plenty of gloating, and several all out brawls (Yeah, I know, hitting a girl ain't cool at all, BUT this was my P.I.T.A. AU-loving OLDER sister).
The South's Oldest Rivalry: I LOVE IT! You can just about throw out the record books and count on the game being hard fought, extremely physical, passionate, meaningful in the hunt for the SEC title, close in score, and as the title of the post so accurately articulates, this indeed is all out gridiron WAR!

I vividly remember the DISBELIEF & DISSAPOINTMENT I felt leaving Sanford in 2005 when AU RIPPED OUR HEARTS OUT with the 4TH DOWN MIRACLE to win 31-30 & I can STILL hear EVERY WORD of my SISTER's OBNOXIOUS voice message that she left on my phone IMMEDIATELY following the 05' game!

LET'S GO DAWGS-I don't want my Sis calling me again this year, I'd much rather be the one calling her for the 2nd year in a row!

According to this site.......

football.stassen.com/cgi-bin/records/opp...gia&team2=Auburn

We are 47-49-6 against Auburn.

That website is awesome for records of all types with a searchable database.

Great post, Dawgspeare!!