Dreadlocks flying, smile flashing, Bell was a vocal leader to his teammates and always one of the first to congratulate after a big hit.

He was one of the most experienced pieces on a defense that sorely lacked seasoning.

And now, thanks to a knee injury suffered against Georgia, he’s gone for the rest of the year.

“(Bell) means a lot to our defense, not just the way he plays, but the things he provides us off the field,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “I really have a lot of respect for him, and how much he’s grown.

“I’m really proud of him and love him and it’s just sad that that happened.”

A number of replacements have been floated for Bell, who started the season’s first 10 games, including sophomore Ryan White, redshirt freshman Jonathon Mincy and true freshmen Jermaine Whitehead and Robenson Therezie.

Roof said all four will get reps at Bell’s spot this week. And whoever wins out will have to catch on quick.

“Losing T-Bell is a big blow with experience in the secondary, a leader of the whole defense,” sophomore safety Demetruce McNeal said. “When one man goes down, another man has to come up. That’s the big thing in college football. That’s why you come here.”

McNeal’s dealing with his own uncertainty at the safety spot he inhabited the first nine games of the season, before Ryan Smith supplanted him against Georgia.

Both safeties saw extensive time against the Bulldogs, with Smith playing the entire first quarter, then rotating with McNeal the rest of the game.

Head coach Gene Chizik called the two “co-starters” and said there’s a competition at the spot.

McNeal, the third-leading tackler on the team with 59 stops, expects to be the starter from here on out.

“I just know they’re expecting bigger things from me. That’s why they did it,” McNeal said. “From here on out, I just have to play better.”

The problem, McNeal said, comes from trying to do too much.

“I’m always out there at 200 percent,” McNeal said. “Sometimes, it makes me go in the wrong spot. I try to do more things within the defense. I try to do someone else’s job instead of my job. I try to make too many plays.”

The tumult surrounding Auburn’s secondary is coming at a time in which it appears the Tigers are at their most vulnerable.

Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray picked apart the Auburn back line Saturday more thoroughly than any opposing passer since Clemson’s Tajh Boyd on Sept. 17, racking up 224 yards and four touchdowns on 14-of-18 passing and posting a passer efficiency rating of 255.6.

And Murray only threw two passes in the second half.

The Bulldogs inflicted the most damage on underthrown, back-shoulder balls that their receivers adjusted to in the air and caught, an adjustment the Auburn secondary could not make.

Malcolm Mitchell torched Chris Davis for a 44-yard gain in this manner on a third-and-15 in the first quarter.

Tavarres King did the same thing to Bell for a 35-yard gain in the second.

Mitchell came up with a sequel in 5 minutes before halftime, adjusting back past a slipped Davis and outrunning Neiko Thorpe for a 25-yard touchdown.

“I think that we were in position,” Roof said. “Some of those balls were underthrown balls, which is the toughest ball to defend when you’re in phase. Your hip’s on his hip and you’re running where you need to defend the home-run ball.

“The underthrown balls are the tough ones and you just need to look for the ball and make a play.”

While Auburn is a respectable 51st nationally in pass yards against per game (215.9), it has fallen to 75th in yards per attempt (7.3) and 87th in opponent passer rating (138.3).

Seems like the perfect time for a veteran like Bell to step in and start straightening things out.

But he’ll have to do all of it from the sidelines.

“There’s no doubt that he will (keep helping the team) because that’s who he is,” Roof said. “There’s no ‘I’ in him at all. He’ll do whatever he thinks he can in his power to help us.”

But the junior guard’s shot, at least, is starting to look the way it did before the injury.

Sullivan hit five 3-pointers and poured in 22 points Monday night, as Auburn downed Kennesaw State, 68-55, to get out to its first 2-0 start since 2006-07.

Tigers coach Tony Barbee said it was good to have segments of Sullivan’s game back, even if he still has some work to do in other areas.

“In terms of what he is capable of doing offensively, that is the Frankie we all know,” Barbee said. “He has the ability to score and make shots. He has the ability to want to take big shots and make them.

“He just has to continue to improve his conditioning.”

That showed mostly on the defensive end, Barbee said.

And Sullivan, who hadn’t topped the 20-point mark since scoring a career-high 27 against Florida in the 2010 SEC Tournament, couldn’t help but agree.

“Everybody who knows me knows I pride myself on my defense, and I don’t think I did a good job of helping my team out with that,” Sullivan said. “I was a little skeptical about my jump shot because I wasn’t hitting it over the first few games. But I see that I still have it.”

Even with Sullivan’s outburst, the Tigers (2-0) let Kennesaw State (0-2), a team that lost by 54 points to Wisconsin on Saturday, hang around for most of the game.

The Owls were even without 6-foot-7 guard Markeith Cummings, who sat out the game in sweats on the bench for an undisclosed reason.

Cummings, who led the Atlantic Sun in scoring last year, scored 18 of the Owls’ 31 points in their loss to Wisconsin.

Tigers coach Tony Barbee said he didn’t know the Owls would be without Cummings until about 5 minutes before the game, but his players knew earlier because they saw he was not dressed out during warm-ups.

“That really surprised us,” Sullivan said. “And we came out nonchalant.”

The Tigers went into the half up 9 points, then doubled their lead in the first 3 minutes of the second half, with a Kenny Gabriel putback staking them to a 38-20 lead with 17:00 to go.

Kennesaw State chipped away at the lead for the next 10 minutes, keeping the Tigers in range, and Aaron Anderson made a breakaway dunk off an inbounds pass to bring the Owls within 53-46 with 6:32 to go.

“The whole game, we were just kind of like, ‘Yeah, they have no shot,’” said center Rob Chubb, who finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. “It was not a good mindset to have. As soon as you take your opponent for granted, they start taking advantage of it.”

That was as close as the Owls would get.

Chris Denson and Sullivan hit back-to-back 3-pointers to touch of a 13-3 Auburn run that ended Kennesaw State’s upset bid.

“I like the way we responded, but we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place,” Barbee said. “That is the issue I have. We did respond, but we can’t afford to take anybody for granted.

“We are not that good.”

Kennesaw State struggled without its top offensive threat, hitting only 18-of-55 (32.7 percent) from the floor and 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from 3-point range.

Aaron Anderson posted a double-double for the Owls, scoring 13 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, Spencer Dixon scored 11 and Nick Turner added 10.

Gabriel supplemented the Tigers’ scoring with 9 points and seven rebounds, and Varez Ward scored 9 points to go along with six assists.

“Last year, we would have easily lost that game,” Sullivan said. “But we hung together as a team and won.”

Three Auburn players scored in double figures in the Tigers’ 77-43 win over Mercer on Friday — Tyrese Tanner (14), Blanche Alverson and Hasina Muhammad (12 each) — and two more — Jassany Williams (9) and Najat Ouardad (7) — got within a basket.

Head coach Nell Fortner would like to see that continue in the Tigers’ home opener against Belmont (0-2) on Tuesday night at 6, and beyond.

“You love seeing that scoring balance,” Fortner said. “All the players on the floor are confident enough to put the ball in the hole. When you’re playing with that much confidence, everyone feeds off of it.

The Tigers’ win Friday put them at 799 in the history of the program, leaving a milestone 800th win on the table for their home opener.

Auburn (1-0) was especially active in the post against Mercer, blocking five shots and outrebounding the Bears, 48-27, in the win, led by Alverson’s 10 boards and Parrisha Simmons’ nine.

Fortner expects a little more of a challenge down low from the Bruins, especially with 6-foot-2 senior center Haley Nelson (16.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg) in the paint.

“She is just extremely versatile as far as offense goes,” Fortner said. “It’ll be a real challenge for us to guard her. Anytime we have an opportunity to guard a player at any position that’s that good, it puts a lot of stress on your team, but also a lot of focus in the preparation.”

With a road trip to No. 8 Duke on Friday, Fortner hopes her Tigers can build on the success they had against Mercer — a game in which they started 10-of-10 from the field — against the Bruins.

“I don’t know if I have ever had a team do that, get your first 10 shots in the season opener,” Fortner said. “It was an exciting start to the season, but we still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go.”

WHERE: Auburn Arena

WHEN: 6 p.m.

RADIO/TV: WMXA (96.7 FM)/None

PROJECTED STARTERS, BELMONT: G Adrienne Tarrence, 5-9, Fr. (2.5 ppg, 3.5 apg); G Molly Ernst, 6-0, So. (4.0 ppg, 2.5 rpg); F Cacy Burtnett, 6-0, Sr. (3.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg); F Tristan Daniel, 6-2, Sr. (5.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg); C Haley Nelson, 6-2, Sr. (16.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg)

PROJECTED STARTERS, AUBURN: G Hasina Muhammad, 6-1, Fr. (12.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg); G Mordan Jennings, 5-8, Sr. (6.0 ppg, 8.0 apg); F Chantel Hilliard, 6-2, Sr. (6.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg); F Jassany Williams, 6-2, So. (9.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg); F Tyrese Tanner, 6-1, So. (14.0 ppg, 2.0 spg)

NOTABLE 
* Auburn, in its 41st season as a program, has a 799-361 record.

  * Belmont coach Brittney Ezell was a four-year starting point guard for Alabama, helping lead the Crimson Tide to four straight Sweet 16 appearances from 1995-98.

  * The Tigers beat the Bruins, 77-59, in the schools’ only meeting, on Nov. 30, 2002.

After watching his team’s 45-7 dismantling at the hands of Georgia on Saturday, Gene Chizik is not your average football fan.

“If you saw us play yesterday,” the Auburn head coach said, “we’re not supposed to beat anybody.”

The Tigers suffered their most lopsided loss in 15 years — the worst since 1946 to their oldest rival — and have now suffered two losses of 35 points or more in the same season for the first time since 1950.

The first blowout, a 45-10 loss to top-ranked LSU, was kind of understandable.

The second one, to then-No. 15 Georgia, was less so.

“I don’t feel like they were that much better than us, what the score showed anyway,” wide receiver Emory Blake said. “It kind of was a punch to the gut, I feel like.”

The Georgia loss followed much the same script as the LSU one.

Auburn hung in the game for the first quarter and change before a series of unfortunate events — all favoring the home team — made the score snowball out of control in a hurry.

LSU scored 35 points in 12:33. Georgia scored 21 in 5:36.

And pick-6’s were involved in both.

“We needed to keep believing, and I think a couple guys shut it down,” Blake said. “Just kind of losing hope a little bit. When you have a couple turnovers in crucial moments or somebody doesn’t make a specific play, then it kind of lets you down a little bit.

“But as leaders, we have to be better at picking people up and stuff.”

Now, for the second time in four weeks, it’s time for Auburn to regroup.

Sophomore quarterback Clint Moseley said his big message to the team after the game was accountability.

If you mess up, own it. Don’t shift the blame.

Moseley, who went 11-for-22 with 140 yards and an interception against Georgia, also getting sacked five times, started with himself.

“Even if I have All-Pro linemen, there are going to be times I’ll have pressure, and you have to handle it. It’s something I feel like is not an excuse for not playing well,” Moseley said. “People will make excuses for me. That doesn’t help me at all. I should have played a lot better.

“There’s no debate about that.”

Chizik said games like Saturday are to be expected from a team that — while 10 games into the season — is still young in many areas.

It’s the ebb and flow of youth finding its footing and, while it’s not an excuse, it’s a fact.

But it’s not acceptable.

“We have to be mindful that there is still a lot of youth on our whole team. There are a lot of growing pains that go with that,” Chizik said. “That doesn’t make a performance like yesterday OK. Some days and some weeks you really see a lot of glimmers of it being a great direction we are heading. Some weeks you look at it and say, ‘Wow, how did we take a step back in some areas?’

“That’s kind of where we are at as a football team. There are a lot of inconsistencies in there.”

It’s a familiar refrain from early in the season, one that started cropping up after Auburn’s close shaves with Utah State and Mississippi State and has made repeat appearances after all four of its losses.

It’s one the Tigers don’t want to use again this season.

“We can’t get down and start blaming and letting the pressure of doing bad build up,” Moseley said. “It’s time for all us to grow up.

“We’ve got to get better. It’s just got to happen at this point.”

Bell, who started the first 10 games for the Tigers, will have surgery on his left knee later this week, Chizik said.

The junior went down after a 9-yard run by Georgia’s Carlton Thomas near the end of the third quarter and lay on the field as Auburn trainers attended to him.

He was helped off the field by two trainers and could not put much pressure on his left leg, then was on crutches with a brace on his knee after the game.

Bell recorded 45 tackles and intercepted two passes on the year.

“It’s big in terms of leadership,” Chizik said. “I think his game over the last three weeks has improved, no question about it, but the level of leadership that he gives, that’s probably one of the bigger hits we’re going to take on the deal.”

Chizik mentioned true freshmen Jermaine Whitehead and Robenson Therezie and redshirt freshman Jonathon Mincy as possible replacements for Bell.

Defensive coordinator Ted Roof also mentioned sophomore Ryan White as a candidate.

Whitehead has played the most extensively of the four, rotating between the nickelback and cornerback spots and tallying 23 tackles to go along with an interception returned for a touchdown.

Tigers fall in BCS

Auburn dropped four spots in the BCS rankings to No. 24 after its 45-7 loss to then-No. 15 Georgia on Saturday.

The Tigers remained in the BCS standings exclusively on their composite computer ranking — No. 21 — as they fell out of both the USA Today Coaches’ and Harris Interactive polls.

Auburn also fell out of the Associated Press top 25.

The Tigers have the worst overall record of BCS-ranked teams, but their ranking benefits from their tough schedule.

Their losses have come to No. 1 LSU, No. 6 Arkansas, No. 7 Clemson and No. 14 Georgia.

Auburn is the last of six SEC teams in the poll, after LSU, No. 3 Alabama, Arkansas, No. 12 South Carolina and Georgia.

Safety shuffle

Chizik called sophomores Ryan Smith and Demetruce McNeal “co-starters” at the safety position after Smith started his first career game Saturday.

McNeal started the first nine games for the Tigers.

“We just felt like the week before Ryan did some nice things, and it was a good opportunity for him to start the game,” Chizik said. “I think that’s a great competition there at that position.”

Smith said coaches let him know going into the bye week that he’d be the starter and “that’s all (he) needed to hear.”

McNeal said he thinks the demotion — even though he played about as much as Smith on Saturday — was about humbling him after some mistakes he’s made in the past couple of weeks.

He expects to start the rest of the year.

“I guess they wanted to try something new. They wanted to see where we were as a defense,” McNeal said. “They put him in front of me for this game, trying to see where he was and trying to see where my head was. They wanted to see if I’d play better or play worse.

“In my eyes, I had the better game.”

It was an encouraging sign for a team that struggled mightily on offense last year.

But Barbee’s not about to dwell on the Tigers’ success.

And his players better not, either, not with another game looming Monday.

“It will give us a true test of how they would carry over emotions whether a there is a lot on the positive end or a lot of minuses on the negative end,” Barbee said. “There will be pluses and minuses from both areas of the game, and we want to see how they will be able to put that behind them and go into a fresh start.”

The fresh start for Auburn (1-0) comes against Kennesaw State (0-1), a team that lost its season opener 85-31 to No. 14 Wisconsin.

The Owls, who finished 8-23 last year, were down 41-8 at the half and managed only 23.3 percent from the field against the Badgers.

Guard Markeith Cummings, a Birmingham native who led the Atlantic Sun in scoring last year, netted 18 points against Wisconsin, making up for more than half of his team’s scoring.

But Barbee doesn’t want his team taking it easy.

“They are smaller at the guard, but are very quick and are really always on the attack,” Barbee said. “They are playing in a very good conference and a competitive league.”

Kennesaw State (0-1) at Auburn (1-0)
WHERE: Auburn Arena
WHEN: 7 p.m.
RADIO/TV: WKKR (96.7 FM)/None
PROJECTED STARTERS, KENNESAW STATE: F Aaron Anderson, 6-7, Jr. (2.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.0 bpg); F Brandon Dawson, 6-6, So. (0.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 1.0 spg); G Markeith Cummings, 6-7, Jr. (18.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 1.0 spg); G Delbert Love, 6-0, Fr. (3.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 4.0 spg); G Spencer Dixon, 6-0, Sr. (7.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.0 apg)
PROJECTED STARTERS, AUBURN: F Allen Payne, 6-6, So. (8.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.0 apg); F Kenny Gabriel, 6-8, Sr. (13.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.0 apg); C Rob Chubb, 6-10, Jr. (21.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 3.0 apg); G Varez Ward, 6-2, So. (14.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 5.0 apg); G Frankie Sullivan, 6-1, Jr. (8.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.0 apg)
NOTABLE
—Auburn is looking for its first 2-0 start since the 2006-07 season.
—Barbee said freshman guard Cedrick McAfee is out 4-6 weeks with a stress fracture in his foot.
—First-year Kennesaw State coach Lewis Preston coached under Billy Donovan on Florida’s 2007 national championship squad.

This wasn’t a national title contender with a suffocating defense and a habit of making decent teams look foolish.

This was Georgia, which — while it sits atop the SEC East — hadn’t beaten either of the ranked teams it had played on the year.

A solid team with no shortage of talent that was ranked only five spots higher than Auburn in the BCS standings.

And yet the No. 15 Bulldogs still throttled the No. 20 Tigers, seizing control of the game with 38 unanswered points and sprinting to a 45-7 win Saturday at Sanford Stadium.

Georgia (8-2, 6-1 SEC) beat Auburn (6-4, 4-3) worse than any team since Florida’s 51-10 victory in 1996, worse even than the 45-10 beating top-ranked LSU put on the Tigers on Oct. 22.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot I can tell you that you didn’t see,” Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. “I think it was pretty evident what we couldn’t do and that was a lot.”

It was Auburn’s worst loss to Georgia since a 41-0 defeat in Columbus in 1946.

And it, like the LSU game, started snowballing out of control rather quickly.

Georgia and Auburn traded touchdowns in the first quarter, with a 4-yard reverse pass from C.J. Uzomah to Philip Lutzenkirchen following up an 8-yard toss from Aaron Murray to Tavarres King and tying the score at 7-7 with 6:13 to go in the first.

The Bulldogs went ahead on an acrobatic, diving 27-yard touchdown catch by Michael Bennett from Murray, then set about playing scorched-earth football.

Kwame Geathers pounced on a Mike Dyer fumble at the Auburn 40, and Murray found Bruce Figgins from 15 yards six plays later to put Georgia up 21-7.

Bacarri Rambo picked off a Clint Moseley pass at the 24-yard line and took it to the house to build the lead to 28-7.

Malcolm Mitchell capped off a 70-yard drive with a 25-yard catch-and-run for a score from Murray, building Georgia’s lead to 35-7 with 5:00 before the half.

The Bulldogs racked up 326 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes, converting 7-of-8 third downs.

They finished at 528 and 12-of-15, as Isaiah Crowell (24 rushes, 132 yards, TD) and Carlton Thomas (15-127) became the second set of teammates to go over 100 yards in a game against Auburn this year, after Mississippi State’s Vick Ballard (135) and Chris Relf (106).

Murray, who threw only two passes in the second half, finished 14-of-18 for 224 yards and four touchdowns.

“We’ve got to make plays. We’ve got to stop the run. We’ve got to get pressure on the quarterback. We’ve got to do it all,” linebacker Eltoro Freeman said. “And we didn’t do that, and the result came out not the way we like.”

Auburn’s offense didn’t give Georgia much to worry about in its brief time on the field — 19:05 — mustering only 195 yards of total offense and 51 on the ground.

The Tigers managed their lowest point and rush yard total in 37 games under offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and beat their worst total yard outing by only 2 yards.

Moseley, who made strides in his second career start against Ole Miss, went 11-for-22 for 140 yards and the pick-6.

Georgia also sacked Moseley five times, with Jarvis Jones padding his SEC-leading total with two.

“We didn’t get any yards, across the board,” Moseley said. “It’s just tough to know what to say in this situation. You can’t pinpoint one thing. It was too many things.

“It was just bad.”

Georgia, with a win over Kentucky next week, clinches the SEC East.

Auburn, with two blowout losses in its past three games, has a lot to think about as it heads into the final two games of its season.

“We just need to check ourselves and see really where our footing’s at, just figure out what we want to do from here on out,” running back Mike Dyer said. “If we really want to win those last two games, or if we just want to give it up and just quit.

“But I think I know this team better than that.”

Chizik would like to eliminate one of those options Dyer posed.

“They don’t have a choice. We’re going back to work,” Chizik said. “The only choice is the exit sign over the door if they don’t like it.”

Six plays, 77 yards, touchdown.

Six plays, 40 yards, touchdown.

And just like that it was over — Georgia 21, Auburn 7 — a little less than 20 minutes into the 115th meeting of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.

Georgia scored on three of its first four drives — the other one ended with a fumble that the Bulldogs got right back after Auburn’s Mike Dyer put it on the ground one play later — and never looked back.

Except to catch the ball.

“Very disappointing,” Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “They did what we worked against. It’s just disappointing. We got beat. There’s no silver lining. There’s no sugar coating. It’s just, we got beat.

“We were not good in any phase tonight.”

Early, it was in pass defense.

Georgia racked up 326 yards of offense — 216 passing — in the first half, taking serious advantage of the Auburn secondary.

Bulldog quarterback Aaron Murray did most of his damage (13-for-16 and four touchdowns in the first half) on back-shoulder throws deep down field, purposely underthrowing the ball to put it where only his receiver could catch it and leaving the Tiger defensive back out of position.

It worked time after time, as Murray hit passes down the field of 44, 35, 27, 25 and 22 all in the first two quarters.

“You know the old adage that the toughest ball to defend is the underthrown ball?” Roof said, “We just got to snap our head around, find the ball and come back on it.

“It’s not just a coverage deal, it’s a pressure deal. We’ve got to find a way to get more pressure on the quarterback.”

Auburn did finish with three sacks, however. But that was the first half.

The second half was all Georgia running backs Isaiah Crowell (132 yards on 24 carries) and Carlton Thomas (127 yards on 15 carries), as the Bulldogs ran 56 times for 304 yards, grinding out the clock in the final two quarters. The Bulldogs only threw twice after halftime.

“They just physically dominated us,” said Auburn defensive end Corey Lemonier, who finished with seven tackles and two sacks.

Auburn’s third-down woes showed up again, as Georgia converted 12-of-15 third downs on the night, including 7-of-8 in the first half.

“It hurts a lot, because you put in so much work getting ready for these big-time games in November,” defensive end Nosa Eguae said. “Just to come out and not be on top and get beat the way we did, it hurts.

“We’ve just got to come back. That’s the only thing we can do from a loss like this, is come back.”

It was more than just an auspicious beginning to the final 30 minutes for a feature back that struggled to 4 yards on six carries in the first half.

It put the sophomore back over 1,000 rush yards on the year, the second time he’s eclipsed the millennium mark in two years with Auburn.

Dyer’s the first back since Carnell Williams (2003-04) to run for 1,000 yards in two straight seasons and only the fifth back in program history to accomplish that feat, with Williams, Stephen Davis (1994-95), James Brooks (1979-80) and Joe Cribbs (1978-79).

Dyer carried 13 times for 48 yards Saturday, putting him at 199 carries for 1,037 yards on the year.

His 2,130 career yards put him 11th on Auburn’s career rushing list, behind 10th-place James Joseph (2,264).

Still, Dyer wasn’t too pleased with his feat.

“When we win games, I’d probably be happy about that,” Dyer said. “But not right now.”

Bell injured

Junior cornerback T’Sharvan Bell injured his left knee on a 9-yard run by Georgia’s Carlton Thomas near the end of the third quarter Saturday.

Bell was down on the field for a couple of minutes before two trainers helped him to the sideline, with the cornerback heavily favoring his left leg.

Bell left the game and was on crutches after, with a brace on his left knee.

Head coach Gene Chizik said he didn’t yet know the severity of the injury to Bell, who has started all 10 games for the Tigers this year, tallying 45 tackles and two interceptions.

Smith gets the start

Sophomore Ryan Smith got his first career start Saturday, taking fellow sophomore Demetruce McNeal’s place at safety.

Smith recorded five tackles on the night, and McNeal made seven off the bench.

McNeal started the Tigers’ first nine games at one safety spot and is third on the team with 59 tackles, also adding two interceptions.

“(Smith) had done a good job, but those guys are both going to play a lot,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “So he got the nod tonight. And I was very proud of Demetruce and how he prepared after that happened.”

Uzomah’s first

Freshman wide receiver C.J. Uzomah’s first two passes ended in an interception intended for Quan Bray and an incompletion trying for DeAngelo Benton.

But on the third pass of his college career, the former high school quarterback found paydirt.

Uzomah lined up in the slot on a third-and-goal from the 4 and took a pitch from quarterback Clint Moseley and threw to the end zone, where Philip Lutzenkirchen boxed out two defenders and caught his team-leading sixth touchdown pass of the year, tying the game at 7 with 6:13 to go in the first quarter.

For Uzomah, a Suwannee, Ga., native, it was pretty sweet.

“It was really a great feeling I got to score a touchdown against my home-state team,” Uzomah said. “Obviously it wasn’t the result we were looking for, but we’re looking to build off this loss.”

If your team plays well after the bye week, everyone says how good it was to have the time off, he said.

If they don’t play well … well … it’s a bad thing.

Using that rationale, Auburn not playing last week was a bad thing. A very, very bad thing.

For Georgia, however, it wasn’t just good. It was grrrrreat.

Just seven days after putting up 63 points on New Mexico State, the Bulldogs didn’t take their foot off the gas Saturday against their oldest rival. Especially in the first half.

In the last two first halves, Georgia has scored 84 points — 49 last week and 35 on Auburn.

Very impressive.

And Auburn had a front-row seat.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot I can tell you that you didn’t see,” Chizik said after Saturday’s game.

Nope. We pretty much saw it all.

Georgia = good. Auburn = bad.

Chizik was also pretty truthful after the game, too.

“I feel like we got beat in every phase of a football game that you can get beat at,” he said. “I didn’t feel like we blocked anybody offensively all night, either in pass protection or trying to run the football. I didn’t feel like we covered many people all night, had a hard time stopping the run, and we turned the ball over.

“So it’s a pretty short conversation in my opinion. That’s why we got beat 45-7.”

Yep. Pretty much.

With two weeks to prepare for the Bulldogs, the Tigers looked like they stayed up too late Friday night trying to cram for a test that might as well have been in another language. Against another team.

Surely what Auburn saw on film and what it got from Georgia on Saturday in Sanford Stadium wasn’t the same. It couldn’t have been.

No. It was better. Way better.

Two weeks to prepare. Two quarters for it not to matter.

Two weeks to get ready. Thirty minutes for it to end.

Two weeks to talk about it. One half to be left speechless.

There’s just something about Athens.

Auburn hasn’t won there since 2005. Since that last-second, what-just-happened win over the Dawgs.

Since, Georgia owns Auburn between the hedges.

It hasn’t been pretty, either. And Saturday, Auburn did everything it could to make sure of it.

The SEC’s second-best rushing attack was held to 51 yards for the game, minus-12 in the first half.

MINUS-12!

Now, those numbers are skewed a bit since Auburn was forced to pass after getting way behind way early.

But from the start, the gameplan was to throw. That didn’t work. Then, it was too late to run.

Even when the Tigers had some momentum early, they got in their own way with turnovers. On the other hand, Auburn’s defense couldn’t get in anyone’s way.

Georgia made them pay. Dearly.

“I thought we were ready to play,” Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “I thought we had a good feel for what to expect. I thought we worked a bunch.

“They just beat us. They beat us.”

That’s the truth.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at mszvetitz@oanow.com or 737-2513.

“It’s like going into the pen with a tiger,” Taylor said. “You really don’t want to go in there and grab him, but you know if somebody doesn’t, you have to save him.

“I tried to calm him down and make sure he knew it was me first so he didn’t punch me. Then I tried to ward him off the field.”

Taylor used any strength he could muster to try to keep the 6-foot-4, 295-pound Fairley from re-entering one in a series of limited skirmishes that had broken out toward the end of last year’s Auburn-Georgia game — confrontations that led to the ejections of defensive linemen Mike Blanc and Michael Goggans and their subsequent suspensions from the first half of the next game.

Which just so happened to be the Iron Bowl.

“I wanted him to play in the Iron Bowl. I didn’t want him to miss the next one,” Taylor said. “At that time at that point of the year, they were labeling Nick as a dirty player. I knew they’d be watching him a little bit harder. He was the first one I thought about and the first one I went to.”

The fighting at the end of Auburn’s 49-31 win over the Bulldogs last year capped off a game that had been tense and chippy throughout, one that included 162 penalty yards and 11 personal fouls.

But, even with the two rivals’ histories, Auburn players don’t expect there to be any problems when the No. 20 Tigers (6-3, 4-2 SEC) travel to take on the No. 15 Bulldogs (7-2, 5-1) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

“That’s the way it is. It’s Georgia and Auburn,” said defensive tackle Jeffrey Whitaker, a Warner Robins, Ga., native. “When you’ve got a pretty good offensive line, who don’t mind hitting you in the mouth and you don’t mind returning the favors, there are going to be some shots. There’s going to be a little talking here and there.

“We’re going to respect the game. We’re going to play until the whistle blows.”

The two teams in the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” have met 114 times since 1892, and they’re only separated by 38 points throughout all of those meetings.

Add in the fact that their campuses are only about three hours apart and it makes for a sense of familiarity that also allows things to get heated every now and then.

Like they did last year.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a feud between these two teams, but when we get out there between those lines, we want to win,” Eguae said. “They want to win for Georgia and we want to win for Auburn.

“As a group, we’ve got to control our emotions.”

Last year, Auburn played the part of the favorite, a win away from clinching the SEC West title and with a spot in the national championship game on the line, and Georgia was trying to spoil its party.

The roles are reversed this year, with the Bulldogs needing only one win to clinch the SEC East and a December trip to the Georgia Dome.

Who better to spoil Georgia’s plans than its oldest rival?

“We ain’t caught up in that, man,” linebacker Eltoro Freeman said. “We’re just trying to win every game. We’re just trying to finish out November 3-0.”

While Georgia’s got a lot on the line, Auburn is also in dire need of a win to jockey for bowl position.

With Samford a very probable win and Alabama a probable loss, the Georgia result could mean the difference between 8-4 and 7-5 for the Tigers, which could in turn mean the difference between a Cotton Bowl jaunt and making a trip of their own to the Georgia Dome: for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

There’s pride — not to mention considerable bragging rights — still out there to claim for the Tigers.

“Any time you play at Auburn, you’re going to be known for what you did in November,” Eguae said. “That’s why we do the hard workouts in the spring. That’s why we put so much time in the summer in the offseason, for November.

“That’s what you’re going to remember.”

Auburn’s most important game of the season wasn’t two weeks ago against Ole Miss.

It’s Saturday against Georgia. In Athens.

Yes, beating the Rebels was a must for the Tigers if they wanted to finish the dreaded month of October with a winning record after playing three top-10 teams on the road — with a win at then-No. 10 South Carolina to start the month.

Yes, beating Ole Miss put the Tigers bowl eligible before Halloween, about three weeks before many picked Auburn to even have its sixth win.

Yes, beating the Rebels was big.

Beating the Bulldogs would be even bigger.

Why?

Because it’s a rivalry game.

Because it’s a game where the Tigers are 13-point underdogs.

Because it’s Georgia.

Because it’s November.

Because it’s the start of Amen Corner.

Because it would give Auburn seven wins.

And, most importantly, it’s huge because it’s the next one.

Gene Chizik and his charges don’t even smirk when they consistently say they wanted — and expected — to be undefeated through this point in the season.

They didn’t want to just have a winning record in October. They wanted to be perfect. They believed that.

That’s the standard Chizik — heck, anyone who’s ever twirled a whistle on the Plains — has set.

“For us, every week a lot is at stake,” Chizik said. “We’re expected to win every week, no matter who we play or where we play them.”

Common sense says there was no way that was happening. None. Not with this youth and inexperience. Not with this many question marks.

But football coaches and players aren’t about common sense. No offense.

They put in too much time and effort to concede anything.

And even thought the Tigers aren’t 9-0, they’re better than expected.

At 6-3, Auburn’s already ahead of schedule. Even if the Tigers lose their final three games – which just won’t happen — they’d be 6-6 at the end of the regular season.

Raise your hand if that’s what you picked in August.

Congrats. Now sit down.

Auburn’s guaranteed seven wins. Samford comes to Jordan-Hare Stadium next weekend for homecoming. Seven wins. That’s good enough for the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Hey, a New Year’s Eve bowl is pretty sporty, considering Auburn almost flushed its chances at the postseason before the regular season even got started.

Remember the Utah State game?

A win at Georgia puts Auburn at eight. Eight — this season — is great.

No question.

And since November is the month to remember, kicking it off with a win would mean so much.

Oh, and a win in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry wouldn’t be bad either.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at mszvetitz@oanow.com or 737-2513.

If only it were that easy for the Auburn senior midfielder to talk about herself off it.

“She’s very modest,” coach Karen Hoppa said. “You would meet her off the street and never know she’s one of the best college athletes in the country.”

Or, one of the best soccer players to ever come through Auburn in the program’s 19 years.

Frierson was a Hermann Trophy — given annually to nation’s top college soccer player — semifinalist last year as a junior, is on the watch list again this year and is one of five players in SEC history to make first-team All-SEC all four years on campus.

With her first goal against Florida in the SEC Tournament championship game Sunday, she set the all-time Auburn record for scoring with 99 points.

She added another goal and an assist on the eventual game-winner, capping the day with 102 points, the SEC Tournament MVP and Auburn’s first SEC Tournament title in program history.

Not that you’d know it by talking about her.

“It’s uncomfortable talking about yourself that much,” Frierson said. “I’d much rather talk about the team and what we were able to accomplish.”

That’s one of the things that strikes Hoppa the most about her senior midfielder, who leads the third-seeded Tigers (14-6-2) into a first-round NCAA Tournament home date with Utah State (15-4-2) on Saturday night at 7 .

Just how much she prizes the team over herself.

Frierson even accomplished her Auburn scoring record in an unselfish manner. In a sport that counts two points for a goal and one for an assist, Frierson has put 30 balls in the back of the net herself, but helped a teammate do it 42 times.

She’s third on Auburn’s all-time goals list. She broke the Tigers’ all-time assists mark early this year and is fifth on the all-time SEC list.

“She’s that player that makes everybody around her better,” Hoppa said. “Like a great quarterback or something. She just makes it easy for everybody. She just puts the ball where you can’t miss it. She’s that type of player.”

Senior defender Julie King knows how that goes. Seven of her 13 career goals have come off of Frierson assists.

King, a first-team All-SEC performer herself, has a concise way of describing Frierson’s somewhat supernatural control of the ball.

“She has the ball on a string. She can do whatever she wants with it,” King said. “It’s hard to describe what makes her so good. I just watch her and I’m in awe sometimes. The things she does on the field are truly incredible.”

It’s not surprising that Frierson has made an impact on the Tigers.

She was a hot commodity coming out of Homewood High four years ago, a facilitator in the midfield who had cut her teeth on the Under-16, U-17 and U-23 national teams.

Frierson was a two-time All-American in high school and could have signed with any school she chose.

She chose to become the highest-profile signee in Auburn history. And she hasn’t stopped growing since.

“She’s a kid that — every day she’s been at Auburn — she’s made our program better,” Hoppa said. “She took a leap of faith to come here, and she’s made us better.”

Now, Frierson and the Tigers will look to advance past the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since her freshman year.

The senior’s play will have a large say in how far Auburn can go.

“Everything’s just so much more meaningful now that I’m a senior,” Frierson said. “This is my last chance. We’re trying to do the very best we can to extend our season in a way that will be very special.”

Again, Frierson turns the topic from herself.

Let’s let someone else pick up the slack.

“Katy is the best player I’ve ever played with,” King said. “We couldn’t have done this without her. We had to have all 26 players to do this, but to have Katy is phenomenal.

“She does it all.”

You’ll probably just never hear her say as much.