Auburn's prayers were answered on fourth-and-18 Saturday night.
With Auburn's SEC and BCS National Championship hopes all but extinguished after a furious Aaron Murray-led comeback, Ricardo Louis miraculously came down with Nick Marshall's 73-yard Hail Mary to vault the No. 7 Tigers back in front 43-38.
"I usually stay poised and wait for my opportunity," Louis said. "This game meant a lot to me. I don't know why, but it meant more. I wanted to win real bad. I looked around and the crowd seemed real sad, because you know we're running out of time and its fourth-and-18. Everybody was all sad, but I was like 'Nah!'
"We were going to find a way to win this game, and I was going to get that ball no matter what it took."
The miraculous play was not Louis's only big play of the game. He finished with one of his more impressive performances of his career, finishing with four catches for 131 yards and 66 rushing yards.
Auburn's rushing attack was again on full display, tallying 323 total rushing yards against Georgia's No. 20 rush defense. Tre Mason, Nick Marshall and Corey Grant all reached the end zone on the ground for the Tigers.
Mason and Marshall have become a nightmare for defenses this season.
"Me and (Marshall) always joke around, but we call ourselves 'The Dynamic Duo.' People are going to have to try and find a way to stop us." Mason said.
Mason rushed for 115 yards on 27 carries and reached the end zone for the eighth consecutive game.
Auburn blitzed the Bulldogs on the ground early, rushing for 246 yards on 38 carries in the first half of play.
Mason put the Tigers up 27-7 with 1:07 left in the second quarter on a 24-yard touchdown run up the middle.
A 37-yard Marshall Morgan field goal pulled the Bulldogs within 17 at the end of the first half.
Georgia opened the second half with a 10-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by a 16-yard rushing touchdown from quarterback Aaron Murray.
Marshall and Auburn took just more than 2 minutes to respond.
One play after completing a 44-yard pass to Ricardo Louis, Marshall scampered in from 5 yards out to extend Auburn's lead back to 17.
It looked like Auburn had the game in control, but in the fourth quarter Murray and Georgia began to build momentum.
With a little less than two minutes to go in the game, Georgia took a 38-37 lead, and it looked like Auburn's SEC Championship hopes were ruined.
Auburn got the ball back and had no success moving the ball, quickly finding themselves in a fourth-and-18 with 36 seconds left on the clock.
Marshall took the snap and launched the ball in the air to a double covered Ricardo Louis.
The Georgia defenders tipped the pass into the air, and Auburn's hopes were ruined. Until Ricardo Louis ran under the ball, made the catch and ran it into the end zone for the winning score.
"I don't know what (the defenders) were doing, but I was trying to make a play," Louis said. "I couldn't believe it, I was looking in the air and then I saw the ball land in my hands."
One year after finishing a program worst 3-9, the Auburn Tigers football team has now reached ten wins in Gus Malzahn's first season as head coach after the 43-38 victory over No. 25 Georgia Bulldogs.
It's hard to believe what Malzahn has done in his short time on The Plains, but Malzahn said he tried to not think about it.
"I never let my mind go there," Malzahn said. "I know I sound like a broken record, but we've just been trying to get better every game. I knew if we did that we would have a chance to be a good team, but this team has exceeded my expectations."
Malzahn has been known to celebrate wins with his wife Kristi Malzahn at Waffle House.
After the game he was asked if tonight was a Waffle House night?
He responded with, "It's definitely a Waffle House night."
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