AUBURN, Ala. \u2013 For Auburn fans old enough to remember, the Tigers\u2019 series with Florida brings back fond memories of instant classics against the Gators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nix to Sanders in the Swamp. Slack to Wasden on fourth down with time running out. \u00a0Game-winning kicks from Etheridge, Duval and Byrum. Tre Smith<\/a>\u2019s flip into the end zone after a blocked punt 20 years ago.<\/p>\n Meeting for the first time since 2019, and only the second time in 15 years, the Tigers and Gators renew their rivalry Saturday night on the Plains.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo go play at home again in front of our fans, which we need them to certainly be a factor, and I\u2019m sure they will be,\u201d said Auburn coach Alex Golesh<\/a>, who will be making his SEC coaching debut. \u201cOpen up SEC play here, which will be huge, and getting ready for a good Florida team, coming off back-to-back wins as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Auburn is 21-5 when opening SEC play at Jordan-Hare Stadium, where the Tigers lead the series 26-8-1 over the Gators. Auburn and Florida met every season from 1945-2002 but only four times since then.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be awesome,\u201d Auburn center Cole Best<\/a> said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great environment. We\u2019re excited, we\u2019re going to be ready, excited to see this fanbase again get after it and be loud. I know all the guys are turned up for it too.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida comes to town with confidence, averaging 59 points per game in wins over Florida Atlantic and Campbell.<\/p>\n For the Tigers, Golesh\u2019s conviction comes from what he\u2019s observed away from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a contagious atmosphere on the sideline where dudes are legitimately playing for each other,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen things are going well, that\u2019 s easy to do and it\u2019s magnified in a positive way. My confidence comes from the fact that these dudes care about each other. Right now, these dudes are bought into each other which is really positive.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeking its fourth straight home win over the Gators, Auburn (2-0) hosts Florida (2-0) Saturday at 6 p.m. CT in the 24th consecutive sellout at Jordan-Hare Stadium on ESPN and the Auburn Sports Network, where Andy Burcham, Jason Campbell<\/a> and Bret Eddins<\/a> will call the action for listeners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUBURN, Ala. \u2013 For Auburn fans old enough to remember, the Tigers\u2019 series with Florida brings back fond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-402319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}