ATHENS — Auburn coach Bryan Harsin made it clear his football team plans to come right at Georgia on Saturday.

The Tigers head coach indicated during the SEC teleconference the No. 18-ranked Tigers (4-1) must run the ball to upset the No. 2-ranked Georgia Bulldogs (5-0) at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“The teams they’ve played can run the ball, (and) it’s important we do that,” Harsin said on the SEC teleconference. “That’s what we want to do.”

Auburn ranks 12th in the nation running the football, averaging 238.2 yards per game on the ground.

The Georgia defense ranks fourth in the country against the run (67.8 yards per game) and is anchored by nosetackle Jordan Davis.

“(Davis) plays in a way you can tell this is important to him,” Harsin said. “He wants to be great and he wants to be a force out there on the field, which he is.

“Up front you have to do a great job of fundamentally playing the position inside, where you put yourself with your hand placement and footwork to win the block.”

Kirby Smart said on the SEC teleconference his Bulldogs’ defense has work to do before the game.

“We have to force more turnovers, (and) we have to tackle better, especially on the perimeter and the secondary,” Smart said. “We have to do a much better job of gap control upfront. Those are some of the biggest things we can improve on.”

Former LSU and NFL defensive lineman Marcus Spears told the SEC Network that Harsin’s plan to run the football is sound.

“Auburn is going to have the ability to run the football,” Spears said. “If this Georgia defense can pin their ears back, it’s over. Bo Nix is going to have to be special, along with this run game.”

The Bulldogs scored a 56-7 win over UAB earlier this season, but hidden in the boxscore was the fact the Blazers actually had success running the ball.

Indeed, UAB had 127 yards on the ground with four players averaging more than 4.5 yards per carry.

Harsin and his Tigers can take some confidence from seeing parts of that game film.

“We say every single week it’s not that we’re changing anything from the philosophy that we have, we’re just going against a really really good team and they have made an emphasis of stopping the run,” Harsin said.

“When you play teams like that, you still have to find ways to run the ball and be effective. And we’re going to be able to do that, we’re going to find ways to do that, that’s what we’re practicing for, so we can run it.”

The Auburn run game is led by freshman Jarquez Hunter (42 carries, 447 yards) and Tank Bigsby (74-430), while Nix has tucked it 25 times and has 133 yards from the quarterback position.”

Bigsby had 99 total yards on Georgia last season, even with an inexperienced offensive line in front of him, catching 7 balls for 68 yards and rushing 8 times for 31 yards.

Bigsby, who is from LaGrange, Ga., won SEC Freshman of the Year last season.