College football 2018 preview: Predicting the first loss for every Top 25 team

Auburn’s matchup against Washington is easily the most intriguing Week 1 game. Since (spoiler alert) there is slide pertaining to Washington right around the corner, we’re going to skip over that game and look at Auburn’s November schedule that includes a trip to Athens for a rematch of the 2017 SEC Title Game and a trip to Tuscaloosa to close the season.

Offensively, Jarrett Stidham returns as the signal caller in Gus Malzahn’s offense for a second season. He led the SEC in completion percentage (66.5) and threw for over 3,100 yards in 2017 and was one of the best quarterbacks in the conference. He was almost a different player between home games and games on the road or played at neutral sites.

Malzahn has a history of developing quarterbacks and Stidham is as good of a canvas as he’s had since Cam Newton so he should progress from year one to year two, but how consistently he can perform at a high level regardless of venue is going to be the deciding factor between 9-3 and a seat at the table with three other top teams.

On the road, Georgia will be a tough team to beat. Auburn is capable and needs to find a way to win with an Iron Bowl matchup in Tuscaloosa looming to close out the season. I think they can handle Georgia in Athens but they haven’t gone on the road and beaten Bama since 2010. With Tua Tagovailoa adding a new level of firepower on offense, I don’t think 2018 is the year Auburn bucks the trend. They’ll survive Georgia and lose in the Iron Bowl.