ATHENS — Auburn coach Alex Golesh says his Tigers are excited about the opportunity to play “a big-time program on a big-time stage” at No. 1-ranked Georgia on Saturday.

Auburn, however, will be without preseason All-American linebacker Xavier Atkins, who’s tied for the team lead with 3 sacks and second with 37 tackles.

“We will be without Xavier Atkins this week,” Golesh said at his Monday press conference. ”We’ll revisit it next week when we meet again on Monday here. We’ll keep it in-house in terms of anything beyond that—that’ll be the only piece of it that I will be addressing.”

The Tigers (3-2, 1-2 SEC) have a storied history with the Bulldogs (6-0, 4-0), owning an 18-18 mark against Georgia at Sanford Stadium in what’s known as the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry,” which stands as the second-most played series with 130 games between the teams dating back to 1892.

Auburn also has three regular-season wins against AP No. 1-ranked teams dating back to the start of the BCS era (1998), which ties Texas A&M for the most in college football.

But for all of that historical data, Auburn’s first-year head coach knows it still comes down to blocking and tackling, and that’s why he and his staff did a deep dive into themselves during their bye week.

“I thought the intent was positive …. The mentality of the team is we have so much to prove,” Golesh said. “When we are at our best, we can play at the highest level of football, when we’re not, we’re just good enough to get embarrassed.”

Golesh, much like Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer last week, emphasized the importance of settling in early and getting off to a good start, as UGA has out-scored opponents 164-40 in the first quarters of games.

“The biggest thing we are trying to get to is, we’ve always done an elite job from the in-game adjustments standpoint in the sense of this is how they’re attacking us, this is where we go,” Golesh said.

“I feel like we’ve done an elite job with that this year. Go back and say like, can we get to that even earlier in our game plan process, where early on in the game you’re on the right thing to go create efficient runs. It can be the running back, it can be the quarterback whatever you feel your advantage can be.”

Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown has accounted for 105 rushing and passing touchdowns in his career, which is eight more than any other active player in the FBS ranks.

Brown rushed for a touchdown and passed for a touchdown in the Tigers’ most recent game at No. 14 Tennessee, a 24-14 loss.

The same principles of finding advantages apply for Auburn defensively at Georgia, and that presents a challenge with Gunner Stockton playing at an elite level.

“As we prep for Georgia, number one team in the country, and you watch it, all three phases, certainly look that way,” Golesh said. “Offensively, man, the quarteback is a really really good player, makes a lot of things go, doesn’t make a ton of mistakes.

“You could tell (he’s) a veteran guy that’s played in the system that gets the ball to the right places, can move it with his feet, can escape in a lot of ways.”

Golesh is equally impressed with the Georgia defense.

“Defensively it’s a mirror image, up front really big, really stout, really physical, that second level, man, size, speed and physical, and then in the back end, that secondary is real, both corners and safeties can cover, they do a really good job of taking what you do away.

“We’ve got to play physical, as you do every week in this league, you can’t turn the football over, you have to maximize possessions.”