By KACE KIESCHNICK, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
Auburn had arguably its biggest win in nearly a decade with a 27-24 victory over then-No. 1 Georgia on Saturday. It was the Tigers’ first win over a top-ranked team since a 26-14 2017 Iron Bowl win over Alabama, but in that game, they were also the No. 6 team in the country. This year, they are still unranked even after the win.
It was a massive victory for first-year head coach Alex Golesh and his team. He told ESPN’s Taylor McGregor, “We’re gonna build Auburn back to where everybody wants it one game at a time just hang with us,” in his on-field postgame interview.
But is the historic upset a key momentum builder toward that goal or an additional obstacle as the Tigers (4-2, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) prepare to host No. 18 LSU (5-2, 2-2 SEC) on Saturday for an 11 a.m. kickoff?
LSU coach Lane Kiffin said on Monday that he was rooting for Auburn to beat Georgia because, “relief syndrome is real.” Relief syndrome is the idea that individuals and teams will relax or become complacent after achieving a major goal, such as Auburn’s upset at Georgia.
The numbers, though, may dispute that claim. In the 90 year history of the Associated Press Poll, the top-ranked team in the nation has been upset 41 times, according to the official NCAA record book. Those 41 teams have a combined record of 23-13-1 in the week following the landmark win, with three of the upsets coming in season finales and Auburn awaiting its result on Saturday. That record does, however, drop to 2-6 when the opponent is ranked in the top 25 like LSU is.
On Monday, Golesh echoed Kiffin’s assertion of the dangers of a letdown game after a big win because of the praise he and his players have received already.
“Now they all got everybody telling them how good they are, and I still have 500-some unread texts on one phone and God knows how many on the other,” Golesh said at his weekly press conference. “After the Florida game I only had like three, and two of them said I suck, and one of them was my wife that said, ‘Man, maybe you don’t suck as bad as everybody says, but we suck.’”
Auburn lost its conference opener to Florida 44-39 at home after starting the season 2-0. At the time, it was an average SEC game between two unranked teams with new head coaches, but Florida rose all the way to No. 8 in the AP Poll after beating Ole Miss, dropped out of the top 25 and is now No. 20 after beating Texas. Auburn has since improved to 4-2 and 2-2 in the SEC with a second loss coming at then-No. 17 Tennessee, but the team’s perception has undergone a bigger metamorphosis than its record.
“There’s now 497 more people that just said how good we are,” Golesh said, referring to his texts. “Somewhere in the middle is probably the truth. I don’t suck, but probably not a genius either – somewhere in the middle. I can humble myself. Can we all humble ourselves on that?”
For Auburn, that humility starts with preparation and consistency. Golesh said his players were “geeked” to get back on the field to face a “really good” LSU team.
“Good win, tough loss, it all has to be the same on Monday morning, and I’ll give our kids a lot of credit,” Golesh said. “They responded. Our entire team was in (Sunday) on their off day. They all individually watched the film. They were in here all day.”
Of the 39 teams who upset No. 1 in the AP Poll as an unranked team prior to 2026, 18 went on to finish the season in the top 25 of the final poll. Concerns of a letdown game, of relief syndrome, are real, but history shows Auburn’s big win could just as easily be an indicator of a rising program under a new head coach.
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