When you play with someone throughout high school, you get a feeling for his tendencies.

What he does well, what he could stand to work on.

And, more importantly, what can get under his skin.

Auburn defensive tackle Gabe Wright has a whole file on Georgia running back Isaiah Crowell — his high-school teammate at Columbus, Ga.’s Carver High — in the back of his mind.

“It’s not anything in particular. It’s not going to be a mama’s joke or anything like that,” Wright said. “He understands that this is a rivalry. We knew way before Signing Day that this thing was going to be big. It’s shouldn’t be new to anybody.”

Crowell, back from a one-game suspension, is the Bulldogs’ leading rusher, putting up 689 yards on 146 carries and posting three 100-yard games.

Wright, coming off his first collegiate start, is one of the interior linemen tasked with slowing Crowell down when Auburn and Georgia clash this weekend.

“Isaiah can be explosive just like every other back, but he also can be stopped,” Wright said. “That’s one thing I know how to do. That’s one thing I’ve been practicing to do.

“That’s pretty much it.”

After beginning his Auburn career with fits and starts, Wright seems to be firmly entrenched in coach Mike Pelton’s rotation on the defensive line.

Wright said an MCL tweak and bone bruise on his kneecap put him behind schedule during fall camp, and it’s been a battle to get back up to speed since then.

He only had about nine snaps over the Tigers’ first two games and did not record a tackle.

For the guy who openly welcomed comparisons to Nick Fairley on Signing Day, that just wasn’t cutting it.

“I know there was a lot of hype, I know I brought it on myself with the whole ‘Nick Who?’ situation, but then again, that’s someone who doesn’t know what goes on when we practice,” Wright said. “With my injury, I had to battle back, follow my leaders, follow their tips.”

Wright steadily stepped up his production in practice — and, in tandem, his game action — over the course of the year.

Against Ole Miss on Oct. 29, with regular starter Kenneth Carter slowed by injuries, Wright got the call.

He recorded one assisted tackle. More importantly, he played 50 snaps, or about the same amount he saw in the season’s first eight games combined.

“Somebody had to step up. Whether that person was going to be me or not, I was going to be ready,” Wright said. “I didn’t want the coaches to have any doubt, and I didn’t put any doubt in myself.

“I was moving all over the place, but it wasn’t in the bad way, it was in the good way. I guess you could say I was trying to make every play, but I was still doing my assignment. So looking back on film, watching film with (defensive coordinator Ted Roof), I managed not to get him mad.”

Wright said he isn’t sure where the starting situation with he and Carter stands, whether he’s a stopgap solution as Carter gets healthy or the Tigers’ man moving forward.

Roof said he’d continue to rep both Carter and Wright with the first team and see how it shook out toward the end of the week.

In any case, Wright’s made up the ground he lost in the fall and put himself in position to compete.

Just in time to take his shot at getting into his former teammate’s head.

“He’s done a good job of picking up and catching up to the speed of the game with his eyes,” Roof said. “He’s an instinctive guy inside, just playing within the framework and doing those things over and over.”