Georgia Football: Three Toughest games of the 2018 season

1. Auburn.

I thought about this for a while and tried to keep it simple. I’m naming this game as the toughest of the year on the simple belief that this is the most stacked team we will play during the regular season.  This will be Jarett Stidham’s second year as their starting quarterback, and his 66.5 completion percentage for 3158 yards proved that he can ball in the SEC. While the receiving corps lost a couple of pretty good players to injury in the spring, Stidham will still have some good receivers like Ryan Davis (who is on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List) and Darrius Slayton to sling it too. Kam Martin is a good running back but he will have to answer the question very soon as to whether or not he can be a lead back.

Auburn will have offensive players playmakers. They always do. The main thing that concerns me, just like the number 2 and number 3 on my list, is the playmakers they have on the defensive side of the ball. They return nine of last year’s 10 of the 2 deep defensive line unit. Derrick Brown is a future NFL first-rounder if he continues playing at the level he is capable of playing at. Dontavius Russell is another guy who will play on Sunday in the near future.  Their defensive front is one of the best in the nation. Luckily for us, our offensive line will be one of the best as well. This game is at home which is also a plus for the Dawgs.

Make no mistake about it though, Dawgs, this game has the potential to be the toughest of the season.  This has always been an intense rivalry, but it has amped up since Kirby Smart took over here. There seems to be a bit of bad blood between him and Gus Malzahn. Both teams should be competing for their respective division titles at this late point in the season, and Auburn would like nothing more than to come to Athens and ruin Georgia’s chance to repeat as SEC East champions and return to the SEC championship game in Atlanta.

Their last 2 meetings have been lopsided,  one going Auburn’s way and the last in the SEC championship going the Dawgs’ way. I expect a much closer game this season. Win all 3 of these games or even go 2-1 in them and we are probably looking at the possibility of making the playoffs for the second year in a row.