Spread: Georgia -6.5
Moneyline: Georgia -250; Auburn +200
Over/Under: 44.0
*Odds via DraftKings.com
Auburn vs. Georgia is one of the greatest rivalries in college football. Known as the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, the two first played in 1892, a game that ended with Auburn getting the win, 10-0. Since then, the two have met over 100 times; this weekend’s game will be the 125th in the series.
Georgia has won the last three and currently leads the series 60-56-8.
Heading into the 125th game between the two, Georgia will be looking to add to their series lead and make it four in a row. Auburn, of course, wants to bring an end to their losing streak. In the process, they want to establish themselves as a team to be reckoned with in the hyper-competitive SEC.
For Georgia, a win would mean the Bulldogs are once again the team to beat in the SEC-East. So—who is going to win?
Auburn Tigers Betting Preview
Last year began with a bit of uncertainty with a true freshman in Bo Nix at quarterback. While he got off to a slow start against Oregon in the season opener, he rallied the team to a win in that game. He then went on to win SEC Freshman of the Year honors.
So, entering the 2020 season, Auburn has a leg up on teams like Georgia—they know who their starting quarterback is. For the team to improve off its 9-4 season last year, they will need him to cut down on the errors and progress as a quarterback.
He’ll get a veteran offensive line to help him out and three potential NFL-caliber receivers. The Tigers have good running backs, although you wouldn’t know that by how the run game fared against Kentucky last week.
On the defensive side, they entered the season needing to reload at some positions. But Gus Malzhan has always done an excellent job of recruiting talent. They gave up 384 total yards to an up-and-coming Kentucky team, but they only gave up 13 points.
They are certainly going to have their work cut out for them against Georgia. But they could catch a slight break—the Bulldogs don’t have an established quarterback (which could also be a negative).
Georgia Bulldogs Betting Preview
As usual, Georgia entered the season as one of the favorites in the SEC—despite the need to reload the offense. Even though the Bulldogs had to find a new starting quarterback, running back, and needed to rebuild their offensive line, they were favored to win their division.
Why? Because their defense, one of the best in the country last season, had almost everybody coming back.
However, things didn’t go quite so well when the Bulldogs opened the season against Arkansas last week. Overall, they looked like a team that needed to open the season with a soft opponent so they could work some kinks out. While Arkansas was considered an easy win for them, it was anything but.
D’Wan Mathis got the start at quarterback, but he struggled to get the offense on track. At the half, he had completed just eight of 17 passes for 55 yards and one interception—and the Bulldogs were down 7-5.
Does a Quarterback Carousel Spell Doom for the Dogs?
So, in the second half, Stetson Bennett was given the ball and had much better luck getting the ball moving. His first drive ended with a turnover, but then he guided the team to points on four of their next five drives—but Kirby Smart has not named him the starting quarterback yet.
While JT Daniels finally getting cleared muddies the waters a little, Smart even threw Georgia’s other quarterback, Carson Beck, into the conversation:
“We’ll be looking at everybody across the board. J.T.’s got to be able to show that he can function efficiently and do it with his knee being able to do it.
“We’re not putting ourselves in a pigeonhole, saying we can only have one quarterback. We’ve got to develop all of our quarterbacks.”
That approach could be viewed as being prudent and covering his bases; it could also be considered as Georgia not being convinced anyone is good enough to win the job. Then again, it could also just be Smart trying to throw a wrench into Auburn’s prep.
Auburn at Georgia Betting Prediction
Georgia’s defense did the job against a poor Arkansas offense, but they are not going to have as easy of a job stopping the Auburn offense. However, they will need to carry the day once again since it is not clear who is going to lead the offense or what it will look like.
Auburn has a good defense, so the Bulldogs will have a much harder time ‘working out the kinks’ this week.
So—who’s going to win?
Do not count on Georgia’s offense this week. Take Auburn to win; at least do so against the spread if not straight up as well. As for the over/under, definitely go with the under.
