ATHENS - 24 hours after a difficult loss to Auburn, Georgia football has at a two-week period before the stretch run of the season to get things right. Here are the 4 things the Dawgs need to do before the play again.
STABILIZE THE RUN GAME
This can be on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Auburn beat the Dawgs up on the line of scrimmage. And the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry usually comes down to line-of-scrimmage play. For the most part, perhaps outside of the 4th quarter, Auburn won that battle.
The 353 yards rushing allowed to Alabama (161) and Auburn (192) is the most yards allowed on the ground in back-to-back games since UMass and Georgia Tech combined to run for 486 at the end of the 2024 season. Auburn’s 192 yards on the ground is the most the Dawgs have surrounded since the eight-overtime thriller with the Jackets.
Meanwhile, Georgia was slowed by Auburn. Nate Frazier struggled to gain his footing in his return from a rub injury. Dwight Phillips continued to provide the program a spark with his 68 yards on 10 attempts. QB Gunner Stockton was the second-leading rusher for the Bulldogs. Stockton gained 40 yards - including a 20-yard run that set up a score.
Georgia needs to get back to dominating or just winning the line of scrimmage. That didn’t happen against Auburn, and it is a must moving forward.
DEVELOP DEPTH ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart touched on it after the game - the Dawgs are relying on the same five players on the offensive line, and that group needs some help from time to time.
“We've got a good defense. We’ve got a good offense, but we have to get better. I need more players to play winning football,” he said. “I need to be able to play more than five linemen. I need to be able to play more people up front that we can count on and be dependable.”
Georgia has featured the same group of five on the offensive line pretty much all season with the exception of a spell when starting center Drew Bobo was out.
GET AS HEALTHY AS POSSIBLE
Speaking of health, Smart said after the Auburn game that the Bulldogs need to condition to get ready for the end of the season. And that players have to return to the lineup.
“Number one, we’ve got to get in better shape,” he said.” Number two, we’ve got to get some guys healthy and back. We had about eight or nine guys that really didn't practice this week in terms of getting them to the game coming out of the last game.”
Georgia was missing starting safety KJ Bolden as well as running back Chauncey Bowens and receiver Isiah Canion, who has been limited for most of the season.
DON’T CHANGE A TON AT PRACTICE
What Georgia is doing is working. That doesn’t mean it can’t improve. But the Dawgs have had two tight games this season, and have won a very important one on the road. On a weekend where nearly all of college football favorites underperformed, to lose on the final play of the game isn’t the end of the world.
The process that Kirby Smart and crew have used for years has shown that it works. Regular season losses to Alabama in 2024 and 2025 and a loss to Ole Miss in 2024 didn’t prevent Georgia from winning the Southeastern Conference and advancing to the College Football Playoff both years.
A loss, particularly one this close, just means you lost. It doesn’t mean wholesale changes at all. What has to be address immediately are the uncharacteristic personal foul penalties. Those killed Georgia Saturday in the loss.
The undisciplined penalties was probably the most disappointing thing because we talk a lot about it,” Smart said. “We show the roughing of passers that were called in our league all over it and say: ‘This is what you can't do.’ But it takes great restraint not to do it, and we didn't have great restraint.”
They sure didn’t, and it helped Georgia lose to Auburn.
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