1. Turnovers – For Auburn to pull off the upset in Athens, winning the turnover battle would be a huge plus. It always is. Hot take. Georgia needs to force turnovers and protect the football. It was turnovers that doomed the Tigers in their losses to Cal and Arkansas. Remember when Auburn nearly beat the top-ranked Bulldogs on the Plains? Hugh Freeze’s team cashed in on Bulldog miscues. Turnovers and the kicking game are always hypercritical. That’s certainly the case Saturday. For Coach King Kirby Smart, these are what the ‘experts’ call “points of emphasis.” As if they aren’t for every game. But hey, this is Georgia/Auburn.

2. Physicality – Toughness, especially in the trenches, is another building block to victory in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. It pays to be the toughest, strongest kid on the block. And you better be able to counter punch. Going back to Wally Butts, Shug Jordan, Vince Dooley, Pat Dye, all the way to today, the team that brings the superior physicality on the line of scrimmage when the Bulldogs battle the Tigers, is usually the one emerging victorious.

3. Crossovers Athens to Auburn – The connections between these two ancient foes are well known and documented. They were perhaps most famous in the 1980’s when Vince Dooley was at Georgia and Pat Dye was at Auburn. Dooley was a stellar receiver at Auburn. Dye was a top flight tackle at Georgia. Erk Russell went to Auburn. In fact, he was the Tigers last four sport letterman. Joel Eaves came to Georgia from Auburn. He was hired on November 22, 1963. Not an insignificant date in history. Dick Copas, Lee Hayley and John Shafer, all ultra valuable members of the UGA Athletic Association through the years, came to Georgia from the Plains. Jordan was the head basketball coach, and an assistant football coach at Georgia before embarking on his storied career at Auburn. One of Georgia’s great offensive linemen from the 1980 national championship team, Hugh Nall, who began his coaching career at Georgia Southern with the incomparable Erskine Russell, was the country’s best O-Line coordinator for Tommy Tuberville at Auburn. Even a young member of the Southeastern Conference’s Sports Information Department Ben Beatty, who learned from the masters Dan Magill and Claude Felton at Georgia, is an Auburn graduate. I’m sure I left some people out that I’m going to be kicking myself over, but the crossover connections are pretty incredible.

4. 2017 – One of Georgia’s greatest victories came over Auburn in the 2017 Southeastern Conference Championship Game. The Bulldogs, in Smart’s second season, prevailed 28-7 at Mercedes Benz Stadium, improving to 12-1 and earning a berth in the College Football Playoff. Three weeks earlier, Gus Malzahn’s Tigers “beat the Dog crap” out of Georgia 40-17 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. This was the first of Smart’s two epic in-season vengeance victories. The other coming four years later over Alabama in Indianapolis for the 2021 national championship. Roquan Smith was the MVP, Georgia dominated the special teams, Jake Fromm and Terry Godwin connected for an Octopus (TD and two-pointer) and D’Andre Swift’s fleet 64-yard touchdown dash delivered the knockout blow. The Bulldogs captured the conference crown for the first time since 2005, when Smart was a very young assistant for Mark Richt.

5. Brock Bowers – Georgia’s incomparable All-American had one of his finest performances ever – which is saying something – in the Bulldogs 27-20 triumph on the plains last season. Bowers had eight receptions for 157 yards, highlighted by a 40-yard catch and run for a score to put the Bulldogs ahead 27-20 with just under three minutes to play. Earlier on the go-ahead march, he hauled in a critical 16-yard reception on third and 12 from the Bulldogs 45 – moving the chains and getting the Bulldogs within striking distance. Two plays later, after quarterback Carson Beck was pushed back for a one-yard loss, Bowers pulled in the aerial across the middle, shook a slew of defenders and turned on the jets down the right side for the amazing score. Brock Bowers … an absolute all-time great.