Deep South's Oldest Rivalry

College Football Rivalries

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[edit] Summary

The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry is the name given to the college football rivalry between the Auburn University Tigers and the University of Georgia Bulldogs. The two schools first played each other on February 20, 1892 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia, with Auburn winning 10-0. The teams have played each other almost every year since 1898, with only World War I and World War II preventing games from being played.

Through the 2006 season, the rivalry is tied for the seventh most played college football series at 110 games and is known as being quite even, with Auburn holding a 53-49-8 lead. To further exemplify the equality of the rivals, Georgia leads the cumulative score by only twenty points: 1,685-1,665, or a per-game average of 15.31-15.13. When the Southeastern Conference split into Eastern and Western divisions with Auburn in the West and Georgia in the East, the game was designated as the two team's permanent interdivisional matchup as a historic rivalry. Though the two teams have been among the league's most successful since 2000, they have yet to meet in a rematch in the SEC Championship Game.

[edit] Results

[edit] Notable Games

In 1942, Georgia won the national championship with an 11-1 record, beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl. But Georgia didn't beat Auburn, falling 27-13 in Columbus.

On Nov. 14, 1958, at Sanford Stadium in Athens, as time ran short, Georgia player and future Auburn head-coach Pat Dye recovered a fumble by Auburn quarterback Bryant Harvard. Georgia quarterback Fran Tarkenton's touchdown pass in the final seconds gave Georgia a 14-13 victory and cost Auburn a Southeastern Conference championship.

The AU-UGA game has been held in many different cities - Atlanta, Athens, Macon, Columbus, Savannah, Montgomery - but on Nov. 12, 1960, the Bulldogs made their first trip to the Loveliest Village on the Plains, which the Tigers won 9-6. This marked a huge change for the Tigers, as Auburn's biggest rivals - Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Alabama and Georgia - would not travel to Auburn. Georgia Tech's first visit came in 1970, while Tennessee eventually came in 1974. It would take Auburn's biggest rival, Alabama, almost 30 years after UGA to make the trip.

In 1983, again at Stanford Stadium, Dye celebrated his first SEC championship as Auburn's coach after the Tigers beat Georgia 13-7 on Nov. 12. Georgia coach Vince Dooley, a former star Auburn quarterback, was there too on that day in 1958 as an assistant on Shug Jordan's staff.

In 1986, the Bulldogs visited Auburn as three-touchdown underdogs. Auburn was two wins away from the SEC Championship, with only one blemish on their record, an 18-17 setback at Florida. Georgia, playing its backup quarterback, escaped with a 20-16 victory. When Georgia fans stormed the field and refused to leave, they were doused by the Jordan-Hare sprinkler system.

In 1994, a Georgia team that had lost to Vanderbilt and had been blown out 52-14 by Florida, ended Auburn and former coach Terry Bowden's 20-game winning streak with a 23-23 tie at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

In 1996, the two teams played in the first Southeastern Conference football game to go into overtime. First-year head coach Jim Donnan's team, which finished 5-6, was down 28-7 at halftime, before rallying to win 56-49 in four overtimes. This game, known to Georgia fans as the "Miracle on the Plains," was also famous for the incident in which Uga V lunged at Auburn wide receiver Robert Baker after a first quarter touchdown.

In 1999, current Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville got his first signature win, as the underdog Tigers, losers of five of their previous six games, led 31-0 at halftime and cruised to a 38-21 victory that knocked Georgia out of the SEC Championship Game.

With a last-minute touchdown pass in 2002, Georgia defeated Auburn 24-21 to secure a spot in their first SEC Championship Game. The Bulldogs defeated Arkansas 30-3 to win their first SEC Championship since 1982. The Bulldogs finished the season 13-1 with a victory over Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. Ronnie Brown at the 2004 AU-UGA game Ronnie Brown at the 2004 AU-UGA game

Eighth-ranked Georgia traveled to undefeated and third-ranked Auburn in 2004. The Tigers were eyeing their first SEC Championship since splitting the title in 1989 (note: Auburn was on probation in 1993 and ineligible for the championship), as well as a spot in the BCS National Championship Game. The Tigers won 24-6 on their way to a 13-0 season, ending with a victory over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl and No. 2 national ranking.

In 2006, Georgia visted Auburn having lost four of their previous five games and being unranked for the first time since 2002, while fifth-ranked Auburn had national title hopes. Georgia had lost to Vanderbilt and Kentucky in the same season for the first time since 1973, when they rebounded to defeat Auburn. History repeated itself as the Bulldogs defeated the Tigers 37-15 and ended Auburn's chances at a national title.

[edit] Miscellaneous

   * The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry has been played more times in Columbus, GA, than any other location. The state's third largest city, located a mere 35 miles from Auburn, hosted 38 games between 1906 and 1958, with UGA holding a 21-16-2 advantage. Including 2006, Athens has held 27 games, Auburn 24, Atlanta 12, Macon 4, Montgomery 2 and Savannah 2.

   * Auburn holds a 18-9 lead for games held in Athens. Georgia leads games in Auburn (12-9) as well as neutral sites (27-26-6). Atlanta: 5-4-3 AU; Macon 2-2; Montgomery 2-0 AU; Savannah 1-0-1 AU.

   * The rivalry is known to be a visitor's series, as the away team tends to fare better than expected. Since becoming a home-and-home series in 1959, the visiting squad has a 29-16-2 record. Even more startling is the home team's failure to win between UGA's 1991 victory in Athens and AU's overtime win at home in 2000.

   * Georgia and Auburn have tied eight times, most recently in 1994, and gone to overtime twice, most recently in 2000. The 1996 contest, which lasted four overtimes, stood as the longest college football game in NCAA history until eclipsed by Ole Miss and Arkansas in 2001.

   * Since the Associated Press poll began in 1936, the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry has had at least one team ranked heading into the game 48 times. The last time the rivalry featured unranked teams: 1991, a 37-27 UGA win. Georgia has entered the game as the AP No. 1 team three times (1942, 1980, 1982), losing only the 1942 contest. Auburn highest ranking is No. 3, occurring four times (1957, 1983, 1994, 2004); they won each except for the 1994 tie.

   * Georgia has the longest winning streak in the series, as the Bulldogs won nine consecutive games between 1923 and 1931. Auburn's longest winning streak is six games, running from 1953 and 1958.

   * The earliest the Auburn-UGA game has been held during a fall schedule was in 1927 (Oct. 22), a 33-3 Georgia victory in Columbus. Only five other games were played outside the month of November (1896, 1915, 1920, 1921, 1936), with Auburn leading those 3-2. The teams have met most often on November 13, with Auburn leading those 11 meetings: 8-3. The last game played on Nov. 13 was 2004, a 24-6 AU victory.

   * Since 1964, Auburn has always scheduled Georgia as the second-to-last game of the regular season (Note: In 2001, the LSU game was moved to Dec. 1 due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks). Since 1993, Auburn played UGA the week preceding Alabama. Beginning in 2007, a new SEC rule stating that all teams must play a game the week preceding the SEC Championship Game, makes for the possibility that Auburn will play an opponent between Georgia and Alabama for the first time since defeating Florida State 21-15 in 1963.

   * Both teams play their archrival in the weeks following the game, which has been cited as keeping the rivalry more friendly, as both teams have to quickly move past the victory or defeat for its "biggest" game of the year.