You've probably seen these numbers that are floating around the Internet:
It's not yo daddy's Auburn. Unless yo daddy is older than a certain age, or younger than another certain age. In truth, Auburn's never been a perennial power. MY daddy's Auburn wasn't really much, usually. Before 2020, AU never really truly won a national championship. There was the matter of 1957, when AU finished undefeated, but was on probation, and committed even more violations on probation, and most recognized Ohio State as the champion. (An assistant coach on that team was a kid named Vince Dooley.)
When UGA traveled to Auburn as the fresh #1-ranked team in 1980, once again Auburn was on probation, so the game couldn't be televised. Soon began perhaps Auburn's most prolonged run of relevance, the Pat Dye era, when Auburn dominated the Georgia series and sometimes the SEC. Yet even with Bo Jackson—no NCAA hardware, but more probation. Auburn is the unrivaled King of Probation in NCAA football. Terry Bowden became coach, and gave a notorious, unpublished interview about the cheating he knew about at Auburn. Lightning finally struck when Cam Newton showed up, however legally or illegally that happened.
But an oddity of Auburn is that the few great teams are immediately followed by awful teams. Auburn's empires are built of orange and blue houses of cards, easily toppled. Their history becomes a long list of newly hired coaches with their "new cultures" that will get Auburn out of the doldrums. But with Bama, the ultimate dynasty-builder, to the west, and Georgia to the east, Auburn becomes the runner-up for too many top recruits, the Tiger/Eagles grow desperate... and the cycle continues. After a while, Auburn's the SEC version of your drunk uncle that always turns up at the door a few dollars short and out of a job after some cheap embezzling scheme. And like Bo Nix, all he can do is keep scrambling and blame the refs.
People talk about Tech not holding up their end of our rivalry, yet here's Georgia, 14-3 in the series with Auburn. Tech has actually done better in their series with us, and with less talent.
How long before they begin referring to UGA-AU as "The Deep South's Oldest . . . Whatever This Is"?
Next, let's do it to Florida.
- Georgia has won 14 of the last 17 games against Auburn.
- The average margin of victory in those 14 games is 18 points.
- Auburn has scored 10 points or fewer in eight of those games.
- Auburn hasn't finished in the AP Top 20 in consecutive seasons since 2006-2007.
- Auburn hasn't won 10+ games in consecutive seasons since 1988-1989.
- Auburn is 2-5 in their last seven games against P5 teams.
When UGA traveled to Auburn as the fresh #1-ranked team in 1980, once again Auburn was on probation, so the game couldn't be televised. Soon began perhaps Auburn's most prolonged run of relevance, the Pat Dye era, when Auburn dominated the Georgia series and sometimes the SEC. Yet even with Bo Jackson—no NCAA hardware, but more probation. Auburn is the unrivaled King of Probation in NCAA football. Terry Bowden became coach, and gave a notorious, unpublished interview about the cheating he knew about at Auburn. Lightning finally struck when Cam Newton showed up, however legally or illegally that happened.
But an oddity of Auburn is that the few great teams are immediately followed by awful teams. Auburn's empires are built of orange and blue houses of cards, easily toppled. Their history becomes a long list of newly hired coaches with their "new cultures" that will get Auburn out of the doldrums. But with Bama, the ultimate dynasty-builder, to the west, and Georgia to the east, Auburn becomes the runner-up for too many top recruits, the Tiger/Eagles grow desperate... and the cycle continues. After a while, Auburn's the SEC version of your drunk uncle that always turns up at the door a few dollars short and out of a job after some cheap embezzling scheme. And like Bo Nix, all he can do is keep scrambling and blame the refs.
People talk about Tech not holding up their end of our rivalry, yet here's Georgia, 14-3 in the series with Auburn. Tech has actually done better in their series with us, and with less talent.
How long before they begin referring to UGA-AU as "The Deep South's Oldest . . . Whatever This Is"?
Next, let's do it to Florida.
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