Unlike Saban in 2007, Auburn beat ULM on Saturday. This is 2024, but facts are facts. The Tigers came into the game with a 3-6 record and improve to 4-6 with a dominating win over the Warhawks in Week 12 of the College Football season.
Let’s look at 3 good things, and 3 bad things from this one… thankfully Auburn won, so we get to start with the Good this week.
The Good…
1. The Offence:
The Auburn offence was a force in this one. They finished the game 12 for 17 on third down, and one for one on fourth down with only two punts on the day.
They racked up over 300 passing yards and over 200 rushing yards, for a total of 507 yards of offence on Saturday.
Payton Thorne through for a total of five touchdowns and 286 yards. A very efficient and explosive day for him through the air.
Jarquez Hunter ran for just over 100 yards on only 14 carries with a 7.3 yards per carry average, meaning he once again crossed the century mark on the ground.
Overall, this was a fantastic offence performance, albeit against a lesser opponent. Still good to see, however.
2. Jarquez Hunter:
We already rhymed off Hunter’s stats in this one, who ran extremely hard against the Warhawks and deceived those who just look at the box score stats.
14 carries doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but when you look at the yards per carry average, this was an extremely rugged day on the ground for him.
Despite the non eye popping stats, Hunter ran his tail off in this one.
Consistently move the chains in the running game allows a previously struggling starting quarterback in Peyton Thorne to not have to be the focal point of the Tigers offence.
With this performance, Hunter crossed the 1000 yard mark on the ground for the season, still with 2 games remaining.
During a season marred with disappointment, he’s been a bright spot this year. Kudos to him for sticking with the orange and blue and showing out this year. Add him to the list of all the other outstanding backs that have toted the rock on the Plains.
Impressive season.
3. Cam Coleman:
There are a bunch of candidates here for the third point in the good category. However, it would be remiss to not give the freshman receiver a shoutout here.
We heard it all summer. Coleman is one of, if not the best high school wide receiver talent that has signed with the Tigers in school history.
Auburn ended up flipping him from Texas A&M as he was originally slated to play his college ball in College Station, however he flipped his commitment to the Tigers and he came to the Plains with supreme hype behind him.
Not to be a pessimist, but that’s all this was at that point, hype. Potential. Back in the summer, us fans hadn’t yet seen Coleman showcase his talents against college competition as of yet. We all saw his high school film, but it’s always a question if that supreme God given ability translates to the college level.
Well, even though he’s had a few flashes throughout the season, Coleman really broke out on Saturday.
He finished the game with an even 8 catches and 100 yards through the air, and most impressively capped the day with a whopping three touchdowns.
His third touchdown catch was superb, as he reeled in a Payton Thorne deep ball with one hand, ultimately finding pay dirt.
Awesome game for the true freshman.
Although the Tigers won in decisive fashion, we still have to look at The bad:
1. The kicking situation:
This is nitpicking a little bit, but fans in Jordan Hare Stadium expected to see Alex McPherson or Towns McGough on the field in this one. But they saw neither.
The consistency of the Auburn special teams, or at least the kicking game has been a constant bright spot in what feels like the better part of the last decade.
The Tiger’s offence and defence have been disappointing at times, but you could always count on their kicking game to steal the show.
Alex’s brother is currently in the NFL kicking for the Cincinnati Bengals and although his 2024 season has been one to forget, he is still seen as one of the NFL‘s premier young kickers.
Evan‘s brother Alex is currently kicking for Auburn, and many fans have touted him as Auburn’s next great place kicker after a phenomenal season last year kicking the football. Alex was perfect on the season last year, and was certainly a weapon for the Tigers, nearly guaranteeing them points every time he trotted out onto the field.
Alex has unfortunately been sidelined for much of this season with an intestinal injury, meaning Towns McGough has taken over the kicking duties for the Tigers for the most part this season.
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like to single out specific players for subpar play, but Towns would tell you himself that his performance has been less than stellar this season.
In place of McPherson and McGough, Auburn trotted out Ian Vachon in this one against the Warhawks. This isn’t a criticism on him, as he finished the game with a clean 2/2 on extra points and didn’t necessarily have any erratic errors.
As mentioned, this section isn’t a negative reflection on Vachon’s play in this one as he was solid, but Auburn is used to having a consistent kicker that they can trust to make both field goals and extra points, and this season has been anything but a consistent situation in their special teams department.
Minorly concerning.
2. No sacks:
Nitpicking here again, but Auburn was only credited with one sack in this one which came from freshman Demarcus Riddick.
Nice day for Riddick, but against a lesser opponent like the Warhawks, you’d like to see a larger sack number.
Not overly concerning, but for a defensive line that has really been a strength of the team this season, it is disappointing they didn’t get after the quarterback more often in this one.
Not overly concerned, but one to mention.
3 Turnovers:
Ditto what was mentioned above about the lack of quarterback sacks. Given the lesser competition that travelled to Jordan Hare on Saturday, it would have been nice to see the Auburn defence (which has been opportunistic in some of the games this year), record a turnover.
They failed to record an interception or a forced fumble. Turnovers can sometimes be random stats, but they supremely help a football team win games.
Not to be a box score scout, but generally when one looks at the turnover column in the box score, you can usually tell which team came out on top by the turnover stats.
Auburn’s secondary has been a rare bright spot in this season and it would’ve been nice to see them get their hands on a football in this one.
Again, not over the concerning, but something to note.
Where has this season gone? It feels like every year this season goes by faster and faster.
As mentioned, Auburn improves to 4 and 6 after a dominating win over the ULM Warhawks on Saturday in Jordan Hare Stadium.
The Tigers now welcome the Texas A&M Aggies into Jordan Hare this coming Saturday, hoping to replicate the energy they showed just two years ago when the program was seemingly rudderless and marred in controversy.
Auburn was able to pull out an emotional win on that night, and hope for a similarly spirited performance in this one against the Aggies.
See you on Saturday for the final home game of the season in Jordan Hare Stadium for the Tigers.
As always, War Eagle!
