Pate's Perspective: Auburn fighting to swing the pendulum back towards balanced in the Georgia rivalry

Rob Pate played safety for Auburn from 1997-2000. Pate helped lead two teams to SEC Western Division championships in 1997 and 2000. Now, residing in Auburn, Alabama, Pate is an exclusive contributor to Auburn Live.

Georgia has owned Auburn for two decades. Of all the opponents the Tigers have battled in that time frame, no team seemingly puts fear into Auburn like the Bulldogs. 

What used to be a game of massive importance to Auburn players—I mean literal tears of desire mixed with anger, respect, and true belief—has devolved into dread, intimidation, disbelief, and embarrassment of late. 

JOIN AUBURN LIVE FOR $1 AND RECEIVE ONE MONTH OF PREMIUM ACCESS

The death grip Georgia has held on this series the last twenty years is inexcusable, unprecedented, and the most disappointing aspect of being an Auburn football  supporter. Georgia has had its fair share of better teams; however, prior to Georgia’s recent run of ultra success, they won far too many in this series with flawed teams. Auburn undoubtedly has more flaws than Georgia in 2023. When does an overmatched Auburn team break the run of Georgia success?

I have always considered this game more important to Auburn players because of the vast number of Tigers hailing from the Peach State. A cursory view of both squads tells the story plainly. But recently history suggests my experiences in this rivalry have waned and either the sentiment has changed on campus or Georgia has a mental dagger planted squarely through Auburn’s skull. We seemingly enter these games hoping for the best, yet expecting the worst. 

At some point there has to be an Auburn class, an Auburn team that is hellbent on upending the current narrative and making this rivalry what the all-time record suggests it is—a razor-thin rivalry—swinging the pendulum from advantage Georgia back to deuce. 

Keys to Win

1. QB play must massively improve. 

Peyton Thorne has to step up and play like a veteran and lead. He has to find comfort in the pocket and trust what he is seeing. We have to be smart enough to understand slow developing plays have no shot while also not being afraid to take deep shots and 50/50 opportunities.  We simply must execute the RPO game that should give the advantage to the offense when read properly and exploited.

2. Transfer portal players elevate their game. 

So many new faces on this roster from predominantly lesser level football programs coming into the SEC to prove they can play with the best. You get your shot again Saturday against the current gold standard. Test one at College Station was an eye opener—hopefully a lesson learned and quickly heeded. These guys all have to acclimate and take their play to another plane; particularly along the lines of scrimmage and at wide receiver. 

3. Disrupt Georgia’s Carson Beck 

Jordan-Hare can be the most dangerous stadium in the country when Auburn fields a team that stands toe to toe with a rival or fights as an underdog. Auburn will be both Saturday and Jordan-Hare can be a thunderous catalyst if this team allows for it. If that happens, life for Carson Beck will be joyless in his first road game. Can Ron Roberts and the Auburn defense get this game into the fourth quarter within striking distance? If they can, all bets are off—Auburn can win it. But a comfortable Beck with the luxury of running game success and time to scan the field will destroy this team. It can’t happen. 

Dependable, steady quarterback play that values each possession and a defense that attacks Carson Beck without giving up cheap chunk plays. Do those two things and Auburn has a chance. 

I believe the competitor in Coach Hugh Freeze will make it extremely hard to not tinker with the offense after two poor showings against our only Power 5 competition. Will he call plays, be more assertive in what he wants to see, script drives? I’m not sure, but I am sure he will turn over every rock to find the right button to push to ignite the offense. 

Though he all but warned everyone the talent to compete against the Georgia’s is just not where it should be—he’s already shown his ability to transform a roster in short order and the recruiting section inside Jordan-Hare will be loaded with blue chip talent once again. 

Just as he will turn around the trajectory of incoming talent—I believe he will find an identity this offense can hang their hat on. I believe in him. 

I remember well the fire that burned within my Georgia brothers that were teammates. They willed our play to greater heights because they truly had tears in their eyes and venom in their breath at the opportunity to beat Georgia. When Takeo Spikes locks eyes with you, tears filling his eyes as he explains what this game means to him, you can’t help but attempt to powder keg something in red and black. When Ben Leard stares down a sideline he grew up rooting for and let’s that team know he didn’t just come to win, he came to crush their soul, to steal their joy, to break records on their field—you raise your level of play for that guy and you battle like a madman.

I’ll never forget the intensity my roommates, both South Georgia born and bred, had for this game. So many Auburn players from towns across the peach state that have been told their entire lives that Georgia football is king. 

This is why you come to Auburn–to play in this long-standing rivalry, to be the next Cadillac Williams or Cam Newton or Kerryon Johnson that gashes a Georgia defense or the next Smokey Hodge or Junior Rosegreen or Dee Ford that delivers the knockout punch square on the chin of a Bulldog with the ball.

Legends are forged in this game—and it’s beyond time for Auburn to fight back in this rivalry.