Kirby Smart didn’t hold back when asked about the challenges of playing at Auburn.

“Let’s start with this, Auburn is one of the hardest places to play in the world,” he said at SEC Media Days on Tuesday from the Omni Dallas.

Jordan-Hare Stadium is known for being a tough road environment and it almost became the site of a shocking, early-season setback for Georgia and a signature win for Hugh Freeze in his first season at Auburn in 2023.

Georgia scraped a 27-20 win in that game against Auburn, but it showed Auburn’s potential in the early stages of the Freeze era. When asked about Freeze at SEC Media Days, Smart had high praise for the second-year coach.

“Hugh does a tremendous job motivating his team, he does a tremendous job in the recruiting aspect and as he gets more and more of his players and his style of play in there, which he’s got some guys this year, they’re gonna be a force to be reckoned with,” Smart said.

Georgia defensive lineman Mykel Williams mentioned Auburn when asked about the toughest quarterback he faced last season.

“They were in a dual quarterback, a two-quarterback system, and both quarterbacks provided something different. Both of them could run. One of them was more of a passer, one was more of a runner. I believe it may have been Auburn,” Williams said.

The atmosphere posed even more challenges for the Georgia players. It was quarterback Carson Beck’s first road start, and the crowd may have had a hand in a slow start from Beck and Georgia.

“The atmosphere is insane, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Beck said. “We had to face adversity in that game.”

“The Auburn game was interesting last year,” Williams said. “They hit a big play when the quarterback, Payton [Thorne], had the 61-yard run around the edge… that was a big play in the game and gave them a little momentum going into halftime.”

Despite being a heavy favorite going into the game, winning close didn’t take anything away from the win, according to Georgia defensive back Malaki Starks.

“It’s tough to go win on the road in the SEC, it’s always hard, but I think it just showed what kind of team we had to be able to come out in that environment, one of the hardest environments to play in, and just be who we are and finish the game out how we did.”

The momentum wasn’t enough for Auburn to pull off the upset, but it was another example of how a tough road environment can impact a game. Auburn hosts Arkansas, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M from the SEC in 2024, and opens the season with nonconference home games against Alabama A&M and Cal.