Brandon Council isn’t lacking confidence heading into Auburn’s most difficult challenge to date — a road game against No. 2 Georgia. In fact, the Tigers’ new starting center appeared to be brimming with it Wednesday as his team prepares for its first road game of the year.

Fresh off his first start at center during Auburn’s loss to LSU, Council spoke boldly about the outlook of Auburn’s offensive line in its head-to-head matchup with Georgia’s defensive line, which is one of the top-10 units in the nation.

“If you start off fast, run the ball on them and keep them out of their third-down packages, really, we could demolish them, I believe personally, up front,” Council said.

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That’s surely easier said than done against the defending national champion and in a stadium that has caused Auburn headaches during its last seven trips between the hedges. Auburn hasn’t won in Athens, Ga., since 2005, losing seven straight games on the road in The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.

That fact isn’t lost on Council, who brought up the Tigers’ last road win against the Bulldogs during his interview Wednesday, but it’s also not curbing his expectations for Auburn this weekend. He also mentioned perceived lack of depth along the line for Georgia as an advantage for Auburn. The Bulldogs will be without preseason All-American Jalen Carter, who injured his knee in last weekend’s game against Missouri.

Even with Carter sidelined, though, Georgia’s two-deep features nine blue-chip players along the defensive line.

“Right now, they don’t have that much depth due to injuries in the interior D-line,” Council said. “The guys that do come out, I don’t think they trust them. If we keep them out of third down where they can’t bring packages and have to keep their main guys on the field, we’re just going to run the ball on them all day because they’re going to get tired.”

Georgia has been one of the nation’s best defenses on third downs this season, with opponents converting just 27.69 percent of their third-down opportunities.

Auburn has struggled to run the ball consistently this season. Against Power 5 teams — Penn State, Missouri and LSU — Auburn has averaged just 100.7 yards per game on the ground and 2.7 yards per carry. According to Football Outsiders, Auburn’s offensive line is 121st nationally in stuff rate (the percentage of carries stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage) this season.

Auburn is coming off a 21-17 loss to LSU in which it managed just 109 sack-adjusted rushing yards and fewer than 4 yards per carry. That performance came with a new-look offensive line, featuring Council at center, Kam Stutts at left guard and Alec Jackson at right guard. Auburn had its most productive game of the season in terms of yardage, but it faltered again after halftime while squandering a 17-point second-quarter lead.

“I think we did great, and the last game could speak for itself, as you could see the push and the line actually playing past the line of scrimmage instead of being pushed back,” Council said. “That was just a big piece. It also goes back to the communication and everybody knowing what they’re doing on the line, so you don’t have to overcome anything. You can just fire straight off the ball.”

The numbers don’t necessarily back up Council’s overflowing confidence, but Auburn hopes it can take some of the positives from last week’s performance and spin it forward into success on the road against Georgia.

“We have the chance to go out there and do something that hasn’t been done in a long time, that’s beat Georgia at Georgia,” Council said. “…That would be a big thing. Our goal is to go in there like a SWAT team, in and out and quiet the noise and beat their behinds and get out.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.