Auburn football pulled off a historic upset over Georgia. Coach Alex Golesh becomes the second Tigers coach since 1942 to beat the Bulldogs while Georgia entered No. 1. But he had to outcoach Kirby Smart without key linebacker Xavier Atkins.

Auburn knocked off Georgia at Athens as Atkins served a suspension. Golesh addressed the status of his defender on Monday with reporters.

“We're still working through it. I don't have an update right now,” Golesh said.

The first-year Tigers coach mentioned before the game with the media that Atkins' situation was more “in-house.” He didn't want to elaborate any further on Atkins or the severity of his discipline.

Turns out Auburn played just fine without Atkins, and not just limited to dual-threat quarterback Byrum Brown going off. Outside of Brown gashing Georgia with 115 rushing yards, Auburn watched the linebackers not named Atkins step up.

Elijah Melendez and Bryce Deas hit a combined 17 tackles. The former, though, showed his versatility against the pass: Intercepting the ball once, producing one sack and breaking up a pass.

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The savvy play of the linebackers propelled Auburn to bottle a traditional run-heavy Georgia offense to just 113 yards. Golesh watched his linebackers and defense raise their fundamentals another level, with Pro Football Focus counting only seven missed tackles on the day.

Auburn remains unranked, but earns a massive opportunity to make a new statement on Saturday by beating No. 18 LSU. The other Tigers already have lost twice including taking the upset against Kentucky on the road. Auburn certainly can spark top 25 conversations by pulling off one more upset.