The Georgia Bulldogs reached the midway mark of their 2025 regular season Saturday night by scoring the last 20 points of a 20-10 triumph at Auburn.
Kirby Smart’s 10th Georgia team has a 5-1 record that includes a 3-1 mark in Southeastern Conference play, with the Bulldogs checking in at No. 9 in Sunday’s latest Associated Press poll. They are still in the picture for the league championship and a berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Georgia is not, however, going to win a contest for the most exciting team in America. The Bulldogs put the Tigers away in Jordan-Hare Stadium with a 16-play, 78-yard drive that consumed 8:45 of game clock and culminated with a 10-yard touchdown run by redshirt junior quarterback Gunner Stockton with 1:53 remaining.
“That’s really who we are,” Smart said late Saturday night in a news conference. “We don’t have the explosive plays. Yeah, I want them, and we’re going to scheme for them, put them together and keep trying, but that’s who we are.
“We’re a stay out of third-and-long. We’re going to run the ball and have a quick passing game. We’re going to use Gunner’s legs.”
The Bulldogs, who have been ravaged up front all season, took a 13-10 lead at Auburn on Peyton Woodring’s 53-yard field goal late in the third quarter that capped a 25-yard drive that required nine plays.
Georgia has produced one of the most memorable plays of the SEC season — Stockton’s 28-yard touchdown pass to London Humphreys with 2:32 left in regulation during the 44-41 overtime victory at Tennessee on Sept.13 — but the Bulldogs are mostly grinding out scores. Their first two touchdown drives in a 35-14 thumping of Kentucky on Oct. 4 covered 75 yards in 12 plays and 96 yards in 13 plays.
“We’ve had several of these long drives,” Smart said. “The problem is that we’re allowing them on defense, too. In the first half tonight, the time of possession was way out of whack.
“I’m OK with that being your identity, but you need to play really good defense behind that identity.”
Had it not been for Kentucky’s second touchdown coming with 1:51 left against Georgia reserves, the Bulldogs would be working with three consecutive second-half shutouts.
After officials ruled that Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold fumbled at the goal line in the final two minutes of the half with the Tigers leading 10-0, the hosts were never the same.
Following that turnover, Auburn’s deflating resulted in no points, three first downs and 40 total yards the rest of the game.
“I didn’t feel it at the half,” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said. “I think I was more pissed off. Everybody was ticked off at half, but the second half didn’t feel like it had the same energy. It’s a part of us not believing we’re going to win the football game.
“Some of the credit goes to Georgia in the second half, too, but I didn’t feel like we played with the same physicality and energy.”
My initial opinion was that the call could have gone either way, which really should have resulted in an Auburn touchdown or a Georgia touchdown the other way. My second thought was that play should have never happened given how half the planet was lined up in the neutral zone.
The bottom line to me was that Auburn still led 10-0 after the turnover and then committed 35 yards in defensive penalties that enabled the Bulldogs to pull within 10-3 at the break. The Tigers have committed double-digit penalties in all three of their SEC losses and are now tied for 134th nationally with 9.2 penalties per game.
“It’s crushing,” Freeze said. “We’re finding ways not to win games. I don’t know if I agree with all of them, and I probably don’t, but you’ve still got to say that’s way too many.
“These are the things that cost you close games.”
Auburn, which is averaging 2.95 yards per play in the second half of conference contests, has now started out 0-3 within the SEC in all three seasons under Freeze. The Tigers had never before started three consecutive years with three league setbacks.
In racing out to a convincing 3-0 start in SEC action, Texas A&M has held Auburn, Mississippi State and Florida to a combined 2-of-33 on third-down conversions for a staggering 6.1% success rate. The Aggies lead the nation in third-down defense, holding foes to 16 conversions in 77 opportunities for a 20.8% clip.
Tennessee officially iced Saturday’s 34-31 victory over Arkansas with a 7-yard run by Peyton Lewis on third-and-1 to the 38 of the Razorbacks.
Arkansas used its final timeout with 1:55 remaining before the Lewis run, and Volunteers quarterback Joey Aguilar was able to take a knee the rest of the way. Tennessee had a stacked backfield on the sealing run containing fifth-year senior tight end Miles Kitselman and redshirt freshman defensive end and former McCallie School standout Carson Gentle, who served as the lead blocker.
Some Tennessee tidbits: The Vols have now won 25 consecutive games when rushing for at least 200 yards, and they’ve won 23 straight inside Neyland Stadium against unranked foes. … Tennessee has scored on its opening possession in all six games this season — four touchdowns and two field goals — with its longest such drive taking just 2:31. … The Vols forced four fumbles Saturday, their most in a game in coach Josh Heupel’s five seasons.
Kudos to Alabama and Missouri for providing a 27-24 Crimson Tide thriller that certainly set the tone for a busy Saturday of SEC clashes.
Alabama redshirt junior quarterback Ty Simpson continued his stellar season and is now 134-of-189 passing (70.9%) for 1,678 yards with 16 touchdowns and one interception. His touchdown total is tied for fifth nationally, and he ranks 11th in efficiency (172.36), 15th in yards and 16th in completion percentage.
The Crimson Tide host Tennessee this Saturday (7:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC) in a matchup that may not contain Alabama running back Jam Miller (concussion) or Vols running back DeSean Bishop (lower leg injury). Alabama was a 7.5-point favorite as of Sunday night.
For Missouri, the loss to Alabama was its first setback of the season, and it came in the sixth consecutive home game for the Tigers. Mizzou finally hits the road this week at Auburn.
“They’re hurting in that locker room right now, because they believed they could do it,” Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “I’m not good with playing them close. That’s bullcrap. We came here to win and didn’t get it done, but we’re going to learn the lesson and leave the event.
“We’re going to have to have a bounce-back factor this week.”
LSU won its 24th homecoming game in 25 years with Saturday night’s 20-10 downing of South Carolina.
The only team to play spoiler inside Tiger Stadium during this stretch was Troy in 2017.
South Carolina fell to 3-3 with the loss, which is where the Gamecocks were through six games last season. They would close with six straight wins to go 9-3 and earn a Citrus Bowl invitation after just missing out on the inaugural 12-team field for the CFP.
“There are things you can take from that,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said, “but we need to stop kicking our own butts before we start kicking butts of other teams.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.