Auburn hasn’t forgotten Georgia’s late fake field goal

[aubiefifty 18,222]

Auburn hasn’t forgotten about Georgia’s late fake field goal try last season

Posted Nov 14, 2019

3-4 minutes

No one on Auburn’s team really wanted to talk about it, but it doesn’t mean the Tigers don’t remember how last season’s 27-10 loss to rival Georgia unfolded.

With Auburn trailing by 17 late, Georgia attempted a fake field goal — a pass by kicker Rodrigo Blankenship intended for tight end Isaac Nauta — that failed with 3:20 to play in Sanford Stadium. It was a play that then-Auburn linebacker Deshaun Davis described as a “bullcrap call,” implying that coach Gus Malzahn used that same terminology with the team.

When asked after that game about why he called the trick play, which came on fourth-and-goal from the Auburn 14, Georgia coach Kirby Smart responded, “Why not,” before giving a deeper explanation about wanting to make it a four-score game in case Auburn mounted a miracle comeback in the final 3 minutes.

“I mean, they tried it,” Auburn linebacker K.J. Britt said this week. “It is what it is. We ain’t forgot it."

Though Britt said the team hasn’t forgotten about that fake field goal try, it hasn’t been something players or Malzahn have wanted to discuss this week, at least publicly, ahead of Saturday’s installment of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. No. 4 Georgia (8-1, 5-1 SEC) will visit No. 12 Auburn (7-2, 4-2) at 2:30 p.m. in Jordan-Hare Stadium, with the game broadcast on CBS.

While Malzahn said last month that the team’s prior two close losses to LSU were still fresh on Auburn’s mind and motivating factors for the team heading into Death Valley on Oct. 26, the Tigers’ seventh-year head coach wasn’t as forthcoming when asked if the way last year’s game shook out still bothered him.

“It’s big regardless,” Malzahn said of the rivalry. “I know that’s probably good for y’all to think about, but it’s big regardless of what happened last year. It’s a rivalry game. It’s as good as it gets.”

Indeed, Auburn probably doesn’t need any extra motivation for this weekend’s game. It’s a big-time rivalry with major implications — in recruiting, in the SEC power structure and with regard to the postseason picture.

Georgia is currently No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings and in position to earn a berth in the four-team field if it can win out, while Auburn is on the outside looking in — at No. 12 — with a chance to not only play spoiler against its two biggest rivals over the next three games (No. 5 Alabama comes to town in two weeks to close the regular season), but make a compelling case to potentially be the first two-loss team to make the playoff or, at the least, position itself for a third New Year’s Six bowl appearance in the last four years.

That paired with the fact Auburn will be playing once again in front of its home crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium — where it has beaten Georgia in two out of three tries during the Malzahn era — should be plenty of motivation for Auburn on Saturday. But as Britt said, last year’s late-game antics have not been forgotten.

After that loss, Davis said, “sometimes karma handles things better than you can.” On Saturday, Auburn will have a chance to handle things itself and dole out some retribution in the form of a win that could foil Georgia’s title aspirations.

“We’ll try to do what we got to do,” Britt said.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[kennypowers 1,431]

Things like that...bulletin board material etc. are usually good for the first few plays of the game.  After that, it's just ball.  So, that being said, use that s*** for a few plays, and if something great happens because of it, let it rain.

[Carnell 600]

Teams better get used to that. For teams fighting for one of the 4 playoff spots it is better to dominate not just win.  They realize that a win by the largest margin they can muster will better for them in securing one of the top 4 spots.

[keesler 5,957]

CFP contenders need style points right now, make the "eye test" give the committee something to thing about.

[Randman5000 4,271]

That's bull crap and I hope we stomp the bull crap out of them Saturday

[AUChatman1971 15]

41 minutes ago, Randman5000 said:

That's bull crap and I hope we stomp the bull crap out of them Saturday

Lol. Gus sure is salty with the language, isn't he? SMH

 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,040]

The motivation didn't do anything to help them avenge the LSU loss, it wasnt anything to help them beat Bama or UGA from 2014-2016. Some of those losses obviously onset by the coaching

 

Motivation is just a ridiculous concept people try to include into games. Unless you're great at your job and maybe a lack of fire was the difference between the prior matchup (Nick Saban at Alabama, Clemson last year in the title game being obv examples),  motivation rarely seems to matter in the grand scheme, at least in the revenge sense. Florida gets their season ended by UGA yet another year, they looked like the less motivated team