Stetson Bennett shares importance of winning rivalry matchup with Auburn

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett IV shared what beating Auburn, one of the Bulldogs oldest rivals, means to him and the program. Georgia dominated in the second half and took the rivalry matchup 42-10, pushing their lead in the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” to 63-56-8 all-time.

Stetson Bennett on beating Auburn

After the big win, Bennett was interviewed on the field about the importance of defeating the Tigers — something that he admitted he wasn’t sure how to put into words.

“I don’t know, I don’t have those kind of words. But I felt… it felt like we weren’t having fun in the first half. And then once we started having fun and just playing football and not worrying about stuff and just going and executing — we started to score more points, especially on offense,” said Bennett.

The Georgia offense took a while to get started in the win, going from a scoreless first quarter to scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter alone. Bennett had a relatively light day of work, throwing for just 208 yards on the day, although he had a career-long rush for a 64-yard touchdown score to push the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.

Nervous this game, nervous starting against Auburn two years ago

Bennett was then asked if the slow start could be attributed to nerves of any kind, after the quarterback previously admitted that his first start against Auburn two years ago was a nervous one.

“No, no I don’t think so. I don’t know what it is. I think we gotta talk and just figure out… we gotta get our moxie back a little bit. But we’ll figure that out this week.

“It’s Auburn-Georgia right? 1896… it’s historic. Always love playing these guys, happy for the win. We’re gonna celebrate it and then tomorrow on to Vandy.”

The rivalry between the two schools actually dates back to 1892, with Auburn taking the first matchup in a 10-0 win. Georgia has now won six straight in the rivalry and nine of the last ten meetings between the schools.