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Georgia bracing for a second dish of SEC road game

Jeremy Johnsonby: Jeremy Johnson10/06/25JeremyO_Johnson
Kirby Smart
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart walks off the field after an overtime win against Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. IMAGN photo.

It’s back to the road for Georgia on Saturday night. Head coach Kirby Smart has routinely called Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium another one of the difficult trips to make in the SEC.

The Bulldogs will face Auburn on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers come in off a bye week following a close loss to Oklahoma in Norman.

Smart again reiterated the challenge ahead on Saturday night.

“What an atmosphere, an opportunity to play a night game at their place,” Smart told reporters on Monday. “They’ve got incredible atmosphere, which is starting to be the common theme around our conference. But this place is really hard to play. They do an unbelievable job with the whatever you call the game, interaction, the crowd, the fans, the students. Tremendous job they do, they got a great football team.”

Georgia has been on the road once already in SEC play. The Bulldogs’ SEC opener was against Tennessee in Knoxville. After falling behind early, Georgia pulled that game 44-41 in overtime.

Georgia can pull from that experience in a few ways. The Bulldogs have had injuries along the offensive line. Many of the players who will be on the field on Saturday night had to learn on the job in Knoxville.

The same can be said for Georgia’s defense. Knowing how to communicate in the rowdy environment will be key.

Georgia prepares for the chaos of a road game

Smart and Georgia simulate the noise of opposing stadiums in practice.

“It’s what makes it hard anytime you go on the road,” Smart said. “It’s an intense, crazy environment. The night games are more so than the day games in terms of that atmosphere that’s created, but we practice in that. We create an environment of chaos and noise and try to create confusion and do things so that we have to communicate in that. So our guys get to practice in it, we’ll have to go out and execute.”

Confidence is key. Experience only decreases the anxiety that comes with playing on the road.

“I think you’ve got a lot of freshmen that now may not have as much anxiety because they’ve done it once,” Smart said. “There’s certainly more anxiety the first time you do it, but it’s not like that goes away. You have to be confident and know your plan and execute your plan.”

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night in Auburn.

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