UGA Roundup: What They're Saying About Georgia-Auburn

Who would have thought, after the , that they'd head into ranked higher than Auburn and on track to play for the SEC championship for the first time since 2005? Can the Bulldogs win eight in a row? Will they avenge last year's loss to the Tigers? Here's what they're saying:

• Georgia's better off this year before the team even marches between the hedges, says David Paschall of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, because Auburn no longer has Cam Newton.
• David Ching of ESPN.com's DawgNation notes that Auburn is struggling on third down, while Georgia's third-down defense is third in the nation in preventing conversions.
• The Red & Black points to a recent Wall Street Journal review of conduct and roughness penalties that concludes: "With 5.4 such penalties per game over the last five seasons, the annual matchup between the Bulldogs and the Tigers got the infamous designation of dirtiest rivalry game in the country."
• Auburn's student newspaper, the Plainsman, notes the overall closeness of the historic rivalry: "Only 38 points separate Auburn and Georgia over the course of the 114 meetings between the two teams. Georgia has outscored Auburn 1,809–1,771 in all of the meetings dating back to their first game in 1892."
• Meanwhile, back in Athens, game-day hype pushed up the arrival of a major dignitary. Santa Claus showed up at Georgia Square Mall on Thursday night, the Athens Banner-Herald reports, to "avoid getting stuck in traffic connected to Saturday’s University of Georgia football game."