Mitcham: Revenge against Auburn for the SEC crown — glorious

I’ve lost a lot of my fire for college football in recent years. I’m not as obsessed with it as I once was for various reasons, which I won’t list. No more Rivals subscriptions and constant monitoring of recruiting. No more worrying about getting to the games.
But dang, this year’s Georgia season has felt good. Whatever happens against Oklahoma, or beyond, the 2017 Bulldogs won the SEC championship. And what I saw will live on as perhaps the most entertaining Bulldog season I’ve witnessed. I started paying close attention in 1981, the year after the national title. I remember the hype at school back then about the Bulldogs. We played football on the playground. That’s as far as I ever got, the playground. But for years, my fictional self dominated in Sanford Stadium. I imagined my passes to myself in the yard as game-winning touchdowns over Clemson, Florida, Tech or Auburn.
Particularly Auburn. For some reason, a lot of my friends in Macon pulled for the War Eagles. We talked trash constantly. And that was when they had Bo Jackson. I developed an early disdain for Auburn, which carried on for years and was really amplified in 2010 when they won the national title in the middle of the whole Cam Newton scandal. (I won’t get started on that again. But I could dish 1,000 words quick on that.) Then, they had that horrible fourth-and-whatever deflected Hail Mary to beat us in 2013 after Aaron Murray engineered an epic comeback. There were other bitter losses that stick with me: 1997, 2001, 2005.
But we’ve had our share of glory, too — the 1982 “Sugar-falling-from-the-sky” victory, the 1986 “turn-the-water-hose-on-the-students” win, the 1992 “stay-down-while-the-clock-runs-out” victory, the 1996 come-from-behind, four-overtime 56-49 win, the 2002 Michael Johnson jump ball on fourth down that paved the way for the first SEC title in 20 years, the 2006 beatdown of a highly ranked Tiger team by a struggling Georgia squad (the only time I’ve been to Jordan-Hare) and the 2007 blackout and Soulja Boy dance.
Georgia and Auburn have the South’s oldest rivalry and are evenly matched across more than a century. The Bulldogs have won more than lost in recent years, particularly at Jordan Hare Stadium. Most of the great Bulldog moments in the series recently have been in their road white uniforms, including all that I just mentioned except the 2007 game.
But there was no road glory this year. Auburn took the shine off Georgia’s number-one ranking earlier this season, slamming the Dawgs 40-17 at Jordan Hare and rubbing Soulja Boy in our face with a sideline dance. The Bulldogs looked totally overwhelmed. And Auburn seemed unstoppable. I wondered how Auburn ever could have blown a 17-point lead to LSU, who lost to Troy. I remember thinking prior to the Georgia/Auburn game that the most disappointing thing that could happen this season would be for Auburn to run the table, beat Georgia twice, and win the national title with two losses. As I said, I dislike Auburn.
And man, that appeared to be the in the works. Auburn downed the seemingly invincible Crimson Tide, showing more physicality than Saban’s squad, which is a true rarity.
Logically, the odds turned back somewhat in Georgia’s favor in a rematch. Georgia’s pride was on the line. Kerryon Johnson was hurting. The site was neutral and Georgia would have plenty of noise in their favor. If it involved two teams and no personal emotion, I would generally favor the good team that got shown up in the first match. That’s how momentum often works. But, even then, I couldn’t feel good about it. I felt Auburn was simply too good. I felt they had our number this year.
My bad premonitions certainly rang true early in that game. Auburn seemed ready to smoke Georgia a second time in 2017, pulling ahead early and driving for a second score.
I turned to my two friends. “If we don’t get turnovers, we lose. Simple as that.”
It’s funny how our actions seem somehow tied to games, like we might jinx it or bring about good things. It’s totally not connected, but in the emotional moments of game watching, it sure feels that way.
Right after I said that, we got a fumble. And the game flipped. Georgia ran all over Auburn after that. It was beautiful. We watched the game on an Internet feed on a big, pull-down screen in downtown Athens. It was buffering and leading to delays and frustrating blackouts. I said, “We gotta’ go somewhere else.” But things had turned in our favor. My friends didn’t want to jinx it. And I didn’t want their karma wrath on my hands if I forced us to leave and then we lost. So we stayed put and when D’andre Swift raced for a 64-yard touchdown to put the nail in Auburn’s coffin, the feed was buffering. I looked it up on my phone and kept a poker face. “I know what’s happening,” I said. As annoying as the delay was, it’s also kind of a fun memory.
After the game, we walked to the Chapel Bell downtown. We didn’t ring it. The line was simply too long. There were hundreds of people cheering and jubilant. It was great.
Instead, we went to Gyro Wrap, my college favorite. I hadn’t been in years. I sat and ate that wrap as people hollered outside. I remembered how I ate a meal nearby in the old Chinese restaurant at the corner of College and Broad after the gut-wrenching 2005 loss to Auburn.
All around us, Auburn fans were congratulating each other with “War Eagle.” But there was no such sound after the SEC championship — only the Chapel Bell.
—
Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal. He can be reached at zach@mainstreetnews.com.