Auburn and Georgia renew the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” this weekend, with the 127th meeting taking place on Saturday in Athens.

The top-ranked Bulldogs are a heavy favorite to beat the struggling Tigers for the sixth consecutive time and the eighth time in nine meetings. But it’s been a close rivalry over the years, with Auburn winning 56 times and tying Georgia on eight other occasions.

Some of the greatest individual performances in Auburn history have taken place vs. Georgia. Here are 12 of them, listed in chronological order:

1. Tom Bryan (1965)

Bryan began his career as a quarterback before moving to fullback late in his junior season of 1965. His best game came at Georgia on Nov. 13, as he ran for 162 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries in a 21-19 Auburn victory. His 42-yard touchdown dash gave the Tigers an early lead, then runs of 25 and 24 yards set up Auburn’s final touchdown in the third quarter. Georgia’s Ronnie Jenkins fumbled inside the 5 in the closing minutes, with Auburn’s Robert Fulton pouncing on the ball to preserve the win. The victory left Auburn with a shot at the SEC title, but the Tigers lost 30-3 to eventual national champion Alabama in the regular-season finale.

2. Pat Sullivan & Terry Beasley (1971)

There’s no more celebrated catch-and-throw combination in Auburn history than Sullivan-to-Beasley, and the two All-Americans had one of their greatest days in a 35-20 victory over previously unbeaten and seventh-ranked Georgia in 1971. Sullivan completed 14 of 24 passes for 248 yards and four touchdowns, two of them to Beasley, who had four receptions for 130 yards. Sullivan hit Beasley on a 34-yard strike to make it 14-0 in the first quarter, then the two connected on a 70-yard score to put No. 6 Auburn up 28-20 after Georgia had pulled within a point early in the fourth. The victory kept Auburn unbeaten and probably clinched the Heisman Trophy for Sullivan, who was voted as the Tigers’ first winner of college football’s top individual award a few weeks later. Auburn got to 9-0 and ranked fifth in the country before a 31-7 loss to No. 3 Alabama (which was also unbeaten) in the Iron Bowl.

3. Joe Cribbs (1978)

In one of Auburn’s all-time workhorse performances, Cribbs barreled through the Georgia defense 34 times for 250 yards and two touchdowns at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 1978. The Tigers needed every inch of it to emerge with a 22-22 tie and play spoiler against the heavily-favored Bulldogs. Cribbs ran for touchdowns of 60 and two yards, the last giving Auburn a 22-15 lead late in the third quarter. He also caught a two-point conversion pass from Charlie Trotman, and had a 62-yard run to the Georgia 1. The eighth-ranked Bulldogs eventually salvaged a tie, but that half-blemish was just enough to keep them from claiming a share of the SEC championship after Alabama beat Auburn in two weeks later in Birmingham. Cribbs’ rushing total was second in school history at the time, and remains fifth on the all-time list.

4. James Brooks (1979)

Brooks ran for 200 yards on 13 carries in a 33-13 victory in Athens in 1979. Of the 29 Tigers who have rushed for 200 yards or more in a game, his came on the fewest attempts. Brooks scored on runs of 67 and 44 yards, the first giving the Tigers the lead at 15-10 in the third quarter, the latter icing the game in the fourth. Cribbs added 166 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries, making he and Brooks the first set of SEC teammates to each eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark in the same season. The victory improved 15th-ranked Auburn to 8-2 and kept alive the possibility of forcing a three-way tie for the SEC title two weeks later against unbeaten Alabama. That game ended in a 25-18 victory for the Crimson Tide, which went on to win its second straight national championship. Auburn finished 8-3, locked out of a bowl game due to NCAA sanctions.

5. Bo Jackson (1985)

Jackson’s 121 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries vs. No. 12 Georgia in Athens in 1985 seem pretty pedestrian by his lofty standards (and the standard of some others on this list), but they must be considered in context. First, 105 of those yards came in the first half as Auburn built a 10-point lead on the way to a 24-10 victory. Second, it was later revealed that Jackson suffered cracked ribs at some point during the game. Jackson scored on a 67-yard cross-field run in the second quarter to put the 14th-ranked Tigers up 10-7, then salted the game away with a 6-yard TD sweep in the fourth. He also added 48 yards on two receptions. As with Sullivan 14 years earlier, Jackson’s performance went a long way toward his winning the Heisman Trophy, which he did by the slimmest of margins over Iowa quarterback Chuck Long. Auburn’s season, meanwhile, ended a disappointing 8-4 after back-to-back losses to Alabama and in the Cotton Bowl to Texas A&M.

6. Kurt Crain (1986)

Never has any Auburn player stood taller in defeat than Crain, who racked up a program record 26 tackles (19 of them solo) in a 20-16 loss to 16th-ranked Georgia at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 1986. The Tigers came in 8-1 and ranked No. 9 nationally, with a solid shot at winning the SEC championship. They left the field having blown that opportunity, but it was no fault of Crain, the 210-pound junior linebacker from Birmingham who was all over the field. Receiver Lawyer Tillman also had a fine day in the loss, catching nine passes for 150 yards and a 13-yard touchdown that made it a four-point game with 2:51 to play. Auburn got the ball back with a chance to win, but Jeff Burger was intercepted at the Georgia 33 in the closing moments. The game is perhaps best remembered for what happened afterward, as Auburn’s stadium security crew turned on the sprinklers to disperse a crowd of Georgia fans celebrating on the field. Auburn recovered to win its final two games of the season over Alabama and in the Citrus Bowl over USC — with Tillman scoring the winning touchdown and Crain totaling 20 tackles in the 21-17 Iron Bowl victory — to finish at 10-2 and ranked No. 6 overall.

7. James Bostic (1993)

After being benched in favor of fellow running back Stephen Davis due to a persistent fumbling problem, Bostic ran angry vs. the Bulldogs in Athens to help keep Auburn’s perfect season alive. He didn’t enter the game until late in the first quarter, but still managed 183 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries in a 42-28 Tigers victory. Bostic’s 41-yard touchdown run put Auburn up 14-7 in the second quarter, his 3-yarder made it 21-7 at halftime. After Georgia pulled within 35-28 in the final four minutes, Bostic broke loose for a 28-yard score that put the game away. Auburn — prohibited from playing on television or competing for the SEC championship due to NCAA sanctions — improved to 10-0 on the season, and would finish off its perfect record by beating defending national Alabama 22-14 a week later at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

8. Dameyune Craig (1996)

In the first overtime game in SEC history, Craig put forth one of the greatest quarterback performances in the annals of Auburn football. He completed 22 of 35 passes for 290 yards, and also ran for 72 yards and two scores on 17 carries in the Tigers’ 56-49, 4-OT loss at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Craig’s three touchdown passes — two to Robert Baker and one to Karsten Bailey — all came in the first half, as Auburn built a 28-14 halftime lead. After Georgia scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to tie it after regulation, Craig’s 13-yard scoring run briefly put the Tigers back up 35-28. He also scored on a 1-yard run to begin the third overtime, giving Auburn a 49-42 lead. After Torrin Kirtsey’s 1-yard run in the fourth overtime put the Bulldogs on top by seven, Craig was stopped a yard short of a first down at the Georgia 16-yard line to end the game. Auburn lost 24-23 to Alabama a week later, and finished 8-4 after beating Army in the Independence Bowl.

9. Ben Leard & Ronney Daniels (1999)

Leard and Daniels conjured up memories of Sullivan-to-Beasley in a stunning 38-21 victory over No. 14 Georgia in Athens in 1999. Leard completed 24 of 32 passes for 416 yards and four touchdowns, two of them to Daniels, who had nine catches for 249 yards. Leard’s passing yardage total was the highest in Auburn history at the time (since surpassed by Nick Marshall’s 456 vs. Alabama in 2014), while Daniels’ total remains second to only Alexander Wright’s 263 vs. Pacific in 1989. Leard threw all four of his touchdowns in the first half, a 4-yarder to Clifton Robinson and an 11-yarder to Markeith Cooper in the first quarter, then strikes of 59 and 78 yards to Daniels in the second as Auburn built a 31-0 lead. Leard’s 1-yard touchdown run made it 38-0 in the third quarter. Georgia closed the game out with three straight touchdowns, but never seriously threatened to win. The victory evened Auburn’s record to 5-5 under first-year coach Tommy Tuberville, but the Tigers lost 28-17 to Alabama at home the next week to finish with a losing record.

10. Carnell Williams (2001)

In his first game against Georgia, “Cadillac” secured his spot in Auburn lore with one of the greatest freshman performances in program history. Williams had shown flashes of the form that made him one of the most-prized recruits in the country two weeks earlier, rushing for 177 yards and a touchdown in a 42-17 loss at Arkansas. But he took it to another level “Between the Hedges,” piling up 167 yards and two touchdowns on an astounding 41 carries (then a school record) in a 24-17 Auburn victory. Both of Williams’ touchdowns came on 1-yard runs — one in the first quarter and one in the fourth, the latter of which broke a 17-17 tie with 6:47 to play. Williams had set up the touchdown by taking a screen pass from Daniel Cobb and racing 61 yards to the 1. The win lifted No. 24 Auburn to 7-2 on the season, but it would be their last victory of 2001. Williams suffered a broken collarbone in the first quarter vs. Alabama the next week, and Auburn went on to lose the Iron Bowl 31-7. The Tigers also fell to LSU 27-14 in a game rescheduled to early December by 9/11, then dropped a 16-10 decision to North Carolina in the Peach Bowl to finish 7-5.

11. Cam Newton (2010)

The 49-31 victory over Georgia at Jordan-Hare Stadium wasn’t the crowning achievement of Newton’s 2010 Heisman Trophy campaign, but it was a major step in the Tigers’ national championship run. After a week of controversy surrounding Newton’s eligibility, the multi-talented junior-college transfer accounted for 299 yards of total offense and four touchdowns as the Tigers clinched a spot in the SEC championship game with their 11th straight win (it was later revealed he was briefly declared ineligible while the school investigated pay-for-play allegations put forth by a booster at Mississippi State, the school for whom Newton had spurned to sign with Auburn). Newton ran 31 yards for a touchdown to give second-ranked Auburn an early 7-0 lead, but Georgia scored the next 21 points to lead by two touchdowns after one quarter. The Tigers tied the game at halftime with two second-quarter touchdowns, the latter an 18-yard pass from Newton to Philip Lutzenkirchen. Auburn took the lead for good at 35-28 on Onterrio McCalebb’s 4-yard touchdown run — his second of three in the game — late in the third quarter. After Georgia cut it to 35-31 heading into the fourth quarter, Newton found Lutzenkirchen again from 13 yards out and dove in for a 1-yard TD to put the game away with 2:45 remaining. Newton finished the game with 151 yards rushing on 30 carries and added 148 on 12-for-15 passing. The win also snapped Georgia’s four-game winning streak in the rivalry. Two weeks later came the “Camback” 28-27 victory over Alabama in the Iron Bowl, which Auburn followed up by smashing South Carolina 56-17 in Atlanta and then edging Oregon 22-19 for its first national title in 53 years.

12. Jarrett Stidham & Kerryon Johnson (2017)

The first of two victories over the country’s No. 1 team in a three-game span came largely behind Stidham and Johnson, who accounted for numerous big plays in a 40-17 Auburn victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Johnson rushed for 167 yards on 32 carries and also caught a 55-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, while Stidham threw for 214 yards and two other long touchdown passes — 42 yards to Darius Slayton and 32 to Ryan Davis — and also ran for a 7-yard score. Auburn outgained Georgia 480 yards to 230, holding star running back Nick Chubb to just 27 yards on 13 carries. Kicker Daniel Carlson also had a big game with four field goals, including a 54-yarder. Auburn beat top-ranked Alabama 26-14 at Jordan-Hare two weeks later, but that victory proved costly when Johnson suffered a shoulder injury while diving for a touchdown in the third quarter. The Tigers met Georgia again the following week in Atlanta for the SEC title, and with Johnson at less than 100 percent lost 28-7 to end any national championship hopes. A 34-27 loss to Central Florida in the Peach Bowl finished off a disappointing 10-4 season.

Creg Stephenson is a sports writer for AL.com. He has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.