aubiefifty

al.com had a gina haim i think that published some great articles about auburn. not many places left for free articles and i am sure not paying money for you ladies as much as i love you. you people infer i either hate auburn or i am a dumbass. my dad played football and my mothers whole family attended auburn uni. my grandfather taught rotc horseback riding so you would be wrong.auburn is my heart. i never attended auburn uni but my love for auburn is righteous. i do this because no one else will step up and do it other than an article here or there.

it is a damn betting line. you gonna hate vegas? because that is how they make their money. they printed a professional betting line for the betters. if you are gonna hate something get it right at least.jesus..............some of you people just look for things to hate.

al.com Gen. Mark Milley stripped Trump of power to launch nuclear strike as presidency ended, book states By Dave Goldiner New York Daily News (TNS) and Tribune Media Services 5-6 minutes FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2021, file photo Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a briefing with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington. Fearful of former President Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks in office, the United States’ top military officer twice assured his Chinese counterpart that the two nations would not go to war. According to a forthcoming book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Milley told a Chinese general that the United States would not strike. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)AP Former President Donald Trump was secretly stripped of his power to order nuclear strikes or launch military actions by top military brass in his final chaotic days in the White House, according to journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s forthcoming book, “Peril.” The two veteran Washington Post reporters offer dramatic new details about Trump’s frantic effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and stay in power. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took the unprecedented action of ordering other top generals to consult him before implementing any significant orders by Trump following the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. The revelations about Milley’s actions were first reported by CNN. “There’s no telling what he could do. You know he’s crazy. He’s been crazy for a long time,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Milley during a frantic Jan. 8 call about Trump’s mental standing. “I agree with you on everything,” Milley responded, according to a transcript of the call. Milley also called his Chinese counterpart Gen. Li Zuocheng twice to reassure him that there was no danger of a strike or other unpredictable military action in Trump’s final days in office. “We are 100% steady. Everything’s fine,” Milley told Gen. Li. “But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” It includes new details about Trump’s effort to bully Vice President Mike Pence into blocking Congress from certifying the election of President Joe Biden in what is supposed to be a ceremonial action on Jan. 6. The book reports that the mercurial Trump lost his temper during a last-ditch effort on the night of Jan. 5 to convince Pence to take his side, and the vice president insisted that he had a constitutional obligation to preside over Congress. “Wouldn’t it be fun if you could do it?” Trump asked Pence, according to the book. “No, it’s not possible,” Pence replied, as crowds of Trump supporters chanted outside in preparation for the violent attack on the Capitol the next day. “No, no, no. You can do this,” the then-president retorted angrily. “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” It was not immediately clear how the authors obtained the quotes of the closed doors spat between Trump and Pence. The book also says Pence called former Vice President Dan Quayle for advice about whether he had any wiggle room to bow to Trump’s demands. Quayle, a fellow staunch conservative from Indiana, told Pence to move on. “Mike, you have no flexibility on this,” Quayle told Pence. “None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away.” Things got even more chaotic in the days after the Capitol riot and Trump became more unpredictable. Pelosi was so concerned about Trump’s mental health that she started making calls to top military brass to enlist their support for unprecedented checks on his presidential power to order military strikes, including nuclear strikes. Trump had already ousted officials deemed insufficiently loyal like Attorney General Bill Bar and Defense Secretary Mark Esper and had installed unflinching loyalists in mid-level posts. When Pelosi called Milley on Jan. 8, he told her he had taken precautions to prevent Trump from starting a conflict, even though there is no evidence he planned to do so. Milley did not inform Trump of the new protocol, which required generals to inform him before implementing presidential orders. “I can guarantee you 110% that the military, use of military power, whether it’s nuclear or a strike in a foreign country of any kind, we’re not going to do anything illegal or crazy,” he said. “What do you mean, illegal or crazy?” Pelosi asked. “The best I can do is give you my word,” Milley said. “I’m going to prevent anything like that in the United States military.” ©2021 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

i am thrilled with our coaching staff. i love greene for hiring harsin as well. i think our special teams are better than they have been and that excites me...............

ball state was a monster in their league last year so they were supposed to be decent. but what if they used ball state for a tuneup game and maybe we did not get an honest picture of them? and coach harsin had to nuke the team at halftime to get us playing good against alabama state. but we have a great opportunity ahead of us and i am thinking we win by a couple of touchdowns. kenny is not wrong very often.

jawja and s carolina fans have given him hell. and the best i remember he always had a hell of a game plan when any of his teams played us that had decent talent.

Auburn ‘embracing’ frenzied environment awaiting team at Penn State By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com 5-6 minutes The speakers on Auburn’s practice fields are turned to 11 this week. No, this isn’t Spinal Tap; it’s Penn State week, and Bryan Harsin and his staff are doing their best to simulate the raucous and frenzied environment that awaits No. 22 Auburn (2-0) when it travels to Beaver Stadium on Saturday for a top-25 clash with No. 10 Penn State (2-0). It’s the Nittany Lions’ annual White Out game, which is typically reserved for their toughest home opponent of the season, and Penn State fans have been anticipating the matchup for some time — with chants of “we want Auburn” emanating through the air late in the team’s win against Ball State last weekend. “As far as the environment goes, we know it’s going to be loud,” Auburn linebacker and team captain Chandler Wooten said. “We try to simulate it the best that we can, but until you’re there, you don’t really know what it’s like. So, guys are understanding that and embracing that and accepting that challenge.” Wooten is right. Auburn can’t fully replicate the atmosphere that awaits it this weekend in State College, Penn. It can crank up the volume in practice throughout the week. It can try to throw an array of distractions at players, particularly on offense, where the noise will be more of a factor in the team’s execution Saturday night. Until Auburn arrives at Beaver Stadium, though, it won’t fully know the environment that it’s walking into—but it won’t be a completely unfamiliar experience for most on the team. Yes, the reputation of Penn State’s crowd for its White Out games precedes it, and while Auburn has never played a game in Happy Valley, the team has dealt with its share of hostile road environments in recent years. “The loud environment — I’ve been in a lot of environments before,” Auburn center Nick Brahms said. “Obviously, I haven’t been to Penn State, so maybe it’s different. I’ve been to Georgia, Alabama in those big games and stuff. I feel like I’m prepared, and I feel like the team’s prepared.” Of course, those games at Alabama and Georgia last season were different, with limited attendance throughout the country, so players like Tank Bigsby — a freshman in 2020 — won’t have that kind of prior exposure to lean on. But go back another season, to 2019, when Auburn experienced two of the rowdiest road environments in the country: at The Swamp in Florida and in LSU’s Death Valley. Both of those teams were ranked in the top-10 when Auburn visited that season, with Florida sixth in the nation and eventual-national champion LSU ranked first. The Swamp held 90,584 that afternoon, while Death Valley 102,160 fans in attendance. Auburn lost those games, but both were close contests throughout. More importantly, they provided many of the now-veteran players on Auburn’s roster with valuable experiences dealing with daunting road environments — including then-freshman quarterback Bo Nix. “We understand what it is; obviously we play in the SEC, so we’ve been in a lot of cool stadiums, a lot of loud places,” Wooten said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to doing your job…. It presents energy and stuff like that and a great homefield advantage, but at the end of the day, we’re going out there to play football. So, we’ve got to prepare well this week and go out there and play our best football come Saturday.” The environment will most affect Auburn’s offense, and communication — with an emphasis on the nonverbal variety — will be key for the Tigers as they try to pull the upset and snap a nine-game road losing streak against ranked teams that began in 2014. “We can’t let the external environment control what we do on offense, especially,” Brahms said. “We know it’s going to be loud. So, we’re going to prepare for it, and we’re going to be ready. We’re planning to succeed.” The thought of heading into a stadium packed to the gills with 106,572 boisterous fans, in primetime no less, may seem intimidating to some. Auburn’s players, though, seem eager to experience the environment, with many this week saying they believe the team will feed off that energy on the road. “Embrace it,” Harsin said. “Be a guy that embraces that. Enjoy the opportunity to play in somebody else’s house and to go in there and play good football. So, to me, it’s more really about the mindset that you take into the week and what you have as you look forward to playing on the road somewhere else. It really starts upstairs, and it’s already begun.” Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

i can honestly say love most auburn folks. auburn is magical to me. i was lucky to know only super awesome auburn fans growing up. Auburn is the only team i have never ever pulled against or never given up on. and tho it sounds corny auburn is my heart. growing up it had a mayberry type fill in it. and people, even students always watched out for me. i was less than ten and allowed to walk anywhere i wanted in auburn. it has always been one of the brighter spots of my life.

reading this thread reminds me of what college ball should be about. for penn state fans i hope you win every game you play but saturday night. you guys have always been top shelf in my book that i can remember.

i am scared of this game. i or we have been let down so many times over the last few years i want a win to crow about. yes we have beat bama but this one will go a long way to regain our respect after some dismal showings. so much frustration could be expelled by a good win at a magical setting. and i think we find out saturday night we just how much bo has improved. and coach bobo has caught grief with a lot of folks saying he is not what he was. and i disagree with that. some people laughed when we hired him. i do think we will be prepared and have a great chance. it's killing me but i love it................

saturdaydownsouth.com 6 Penn State players that Auburn fans should be looking for Saturday Dave Hooker | 22 hours ago 5-6 minutes It’s not the Iron Bowl, but it’s very intriguing. Auburn travels to Happy Valley, Pa., on Saturday to play Penn State in what could be the best game in college football this weekend. The Tigers have shown several signs of buying in to first-year Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin’s system. Everything seems to be falling in place. Auburn is 2-0. They have beaten their opponents by a combined score of 122-10. Quarterback Bo Nix looks like Clark Kent after he changed clothes. Everything is good on The Plains. Whether that continues will be determined at 7:30 p.m. EST on Saturday when things will get a bit more difficult. Penn State has planned a “whiteout,” which means fans are encouraged to wear white to Beaver Stadium. ESPN’s College GameDay will be in attendance. Things just got real. It’s only the third meeting. Penn State won 43-14 in 1996. Auburn won 13-9 in 2003. You are certainly forgiven if you don’t know the Nittany Lions well. After all, it’s not a team that regularly comes up in southern conversation. So, let’s set the record straight: Penn State is 2-0 with a 16-10 win on the road against Wisconsin and a 44-13 thumping over Ball State in Happy Valley last week. They have a veteran QB in Sean Clifford, who has had a love-hate relationship with fans for most of his tenure. Clifford was benched briefly last season and replaced by Will Levis. Clifford regained it and Levis transferred to Kentucky. This season, Clifford has thrown just 2 TD passes in 2 games. What would a road win mean for Auburn? Well, it wouldn’t get Auburn to the SEC Championship since it’s a nonconference opponent. It wouldn’t be like beating Alabama, but it would be big. Beating Penn State would would be a gem of a road win for a young team that is still finding its way, a milestone moment for Nix, in particular. Think of the possibilities. With a win against Penn State and a win against Georgia State next week, which is likely, Auburn could roll into that Oct. 2 game at LSU with a clean 4-0 record. ESPN would surely take note of that — if LSU can keep up its end of the bargain. LSU is 1-1 with games against Central Michigan and Mississippi State in the next two weeks. But let’s get back to Penn State — the team Auburn will play this week. The Nittany Lions are in the Year 8 of the James Franklin era. Auburn should know him well. He twice won 9 games at Vanderbilt. Franklin has had time to build Penn State’s football team in his image. Here are 6 players to keep an eye on when the Tigers face the Lions: WR Jahan Dotson It’s easy just to say the SEC has more team speed and should usually win at the skill positions when they step outside the conference. After all, that is what typically happens. However, Dotson might take issue with that. The Penn State wideout has 10 receptions for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns this season. The senior is widely thought of as the best player on Penn State’s roster. S Jaquan Brisker Just a sophomore, Brisker has become a dependable player against the run and pass. He already has 6 tackles this season and an interception that he returned for 41 yards. The interception came against Wisconsin to help seal the game as the Badgers were driving late in the fourth quarter. That’s called clutch. RB Noah Cain Cain is handling his return to active duty quite well. After suffering a season-ending knee injury in October 2020, the junior appears to be fully recovered. Cain has carried the ball 28 times this season for 117 yards. More importantly, he carried the ball 20 times last week, which shows he is healthy. Cain will be looking for his breakout game from surgery when Auburn hits the field on Saturday. Cain averaged 5.3-yards per carry as a freshman in 2019. LB Brandon Smith When you think of linebackers, you think of Penn State and their tradition of having elite linebackers for decades. Now, it’s time to think about Brandon Smith. He was a huge recruiting pickup for Franklin in 2019. Smith, who already has 15 tackles this season, must be accounted for in Auburn’s rushing attack. LT Rasheed Walker This may be Walker’s last season in a Penn State uniform. The junior left tackle has already drawn strong reviews from professional scouts and could decide to skip his senior season and enter the 2022 NFL Draft. Walker could make things tough on Auburn’s defensive end, especially those that line up on the right side of the defense. WR Parker Washington Here is another receiver for Auburn’s defensive players to keep an eye on. At 5-10, Washington isn’t big but he’s proven to be shifty. The junior already has 10 receptions for 104 yards this season. Auburn’s defensive backs will be challenged Saturday. Along with Dotson, Penn State has 2 formidable wideouts that could play a key role in the Auburn game.

al.com Bet against Auburn’s offense vs. Penn State By Christopher Smith 4-6 minutes Auburn quarterback Bo Nix (10) lines up under center during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Akron Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)AP Context matters when taking stock of Auburn’s rushing success during the first two games of the season. Still, no matter the opponent, 680 rushing yards on 9.6 yards per carry and eight touchdowns is a magnificent start to the Bryan Harsin era. Tank Bigsby, Shaun Shivers and Jarquez Hunter are all averaging at least 10 yards per carry. Pro Football Focus has graded Auburn’s run offense as the second-best in the country and the run blocking as tied for 12th. You know what Big Ten team usually is good at running the football between the tackles? Wisconsin. The Badgers entered the season with the nation’s 13th-best offensive line according to Phil Steele. Penn State didn’t need to respect quarterback Graham Mertz and the Wisconsin passing game. What happened? The Nittany Lions held Wisconsin to 3.1 yards per carry. The Badgers didn’t give up, rushing 58 times. They managed a lot of first downs but only 10 points. Auburn is going to win its share of games this season if it continues to run the way it has. But against the strongest opponents – like SP+ No. 7 Penn State on the road – it needs to present a passing threat. Penn State – 5.5-point home favorites against the Tigers – lost a field full of NFL draft choices in the last two years. Those picks included linebacker Micah Parsons (first round, No. 13 overall), defensive end Odafe Oweh (first round, No. 31 overall), defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (second round), cornerback John Reid (fourth round) and three other drafted players. This isn’t an invincible unit. But it’s a unit that can probably shut down even a very good one-dimensional, run-based offense. That leads us to Bo Nix. He beat Oregon on national TV in his first start as a true freshman, creating (probably unfair) expectations. Now the Auburn football program has charged Harsin and Mike Bobo with manufacturing the sort of growth in Nix that everyone has been wanting since that first game. Nix has played eight teams ranked in the top 11 of the AP Top 25 during his career at Auburn. In those eight games, Nix has completed just 52.2 percent of his passes for 5.3 yards per attempt, six touchdowns and nine interceptions. He’s also taken 17 sacks. Last season, when under pressure, Nix completed just 40.7 percent of his passes according to Pro Football Focus, throwing zero touchdowns and three interceptions on such plays. Auburn’s Herculean rushing effort against Alabama State papered over the fact that Nix completed just 9 of 17 passes for 6.4 yards per attempt. His receivers didn’t help, dropping too many passes. Penn State ranks third in Pro Football Focus’ coverage grades through two games. Penn State’s defense ranks fifth overall in SP+. Harsin has a strong track record with quarterbacks. But for all his imperfections, Gus Malzahn is a “smarter” coach at UCF than he was at Auburn last season because of Dillon Gabriel. UCF’s quarterback has completed 65.8 percent of his passes as the Knights have scored 99 points in two wins. Harsin and Bobo aren’t magicians. They can present a running threat. They can scheme around Nix’s strengths and limitations. But when Auburn needs to convert a big third down on the road, and Penn State brings pressure, can they transform Nix into a different player? Auburn’s rushing stats in the first two games would make even the most ardent devotees to EA Sports’ NCAA Football video game series blush. Perhaps the Tigers are so good on the ground that even Penn State, which mostly stoned Wisconsin, won’t be able to contain them. More likely, the Nittany Lions will play to stop the run, pressure Nix and dare the quarterback to do something he usually hasn’t been able to do: beat a potentially elite defense while defenders buzz around him. I’m counting on Auburn’s eye-popping final scores in their first two weeks, and optimism that Nix will be much better under Harsin, to inflate the Tigers in the betting market. Give me Penn State -6 at home. Christopher Smith specializes in handicapping college football and basketball. He founded Sports Locksmith to share his analysis.

Penn State a chance for Harsin, Auburn to write new chapter ByNathan King 5-7 minutes AUBURN, Alabama — Bryan Harsin won three conference championships at Boise State, so context matters, not rankings, when looking at the implications of individual games. Still, it’s probably not hyperbole to venture that, if Auburn can march into Happy Valley and down the Nittany Lions on Saturday night, it would be the biggest win of Harsin’s head-coaching career. In his eight seasons as a head coach — one at Arkansas State in 2013 and the following seven in Boise — Harsin never came particularly close to having to prepare for a road game against a team of this caliber. The highest-ranked team his Broncos ever faced away from home was No. 19 San Diego State in 2017; Boise State won that game 31-14. No. 22 Auburn takes No. 10 Penn State on Saturday night in front of a crowd of more than 106,000 in the Nittany Lions’ annual whiteout game. The biggest road win of Harsin’s head-coaching career likely came in 2019, when Boise State came back from down double digits in the second half to beat Florida State in Tallahassee in the season opener. That FSU team was unranked, as were Harsin’s Broncos. Of course, Harsin’s played a role in bigger wins as an assistant coach. His first season as Boise State’s offensive coordinator in 2006 was when he helped engineer one of the most entertaining bowl victories of all time in the Fiesta Bowl against No. 7 Oklahoma. Boise State opened the 2008 season with a win at No. 18 Oregon, then beat No. 3 TCU in the Fiesta Bowl the following year. The highest-ranked true road win Harsin has ever been a part of as a coach was Boise State’s victory at No. 13 Virginia Tech in 2010. That’s the nature of going from a high-level, Power-Five job to the SEC. Harsin faced 11 ranked teams overall in seven seasons in Boise. He’ll probably surpass that number at Auburn midway through next season. As such, given what the SEC West tends to provide in terms of Playoff-contending competition, Auburn is no stranger to these kinds of games. And no one would blame a program for having a less-than-stellar record in big games on the road, especially in the SEC. Still, its last win against a top-10 team in a true road game was back in 2014, when the Tigers outlasted No. 7 Ole Miss 35-31. Since, Auburn has lost nine straight such matchups. Here are those games. 2014: No. 15 Auburn at No. 2 Alabama Score: 55-44 Alabama 2016: No. 13 Auburn at No. 1 Alabama Score: 30-12 Alabama 2017: No. 13 Auburn at No. 3 Clemson Score: 14-6 Clemson 2018: Auburn at No. 5 Georgia Score: 27-10 Georgia 2018: Auburn at No. 1 Alabama Score: 52-21 Alabama 2019: No. 7 Auburn at No. 10 Florida Score: 24-13 Florida 2019: No. 9 Auburn at No. 2 LSU Score: 23-20 LSU 2020: No. 7 Auburn at No. 4 Georgia Score: 27-6 Georgia 2020: No. 22 Auburn at No. 1 Alabama Score: 42-13 Alabama See a trend? Since 2016, Gus Malzahn’s offenses averaged 12.6 points per game in these games, and never eclipsed more than 21 points. In six of the nine games, Auburn scored one touchdown or less. Malzahn won two of his four against top-10 opponents on the road before igniting the losing streak. Offensive ineptitude has to be avoided at Penn State. It's buried Auburn entirely too early in big road spots in recent years. Harsin, of course, knows execution not only on offense will be crucial in Happy Valley. But leading up to kickoff, he wants to find out whether his team has the DNA to pull off such a big win — to keep their heads down during the week and continue to subscribe to his “1-0” mentality every day, and not already be fast-forwarded to Saturday night. It’s Harsin’s first chance to see his Tigers prepare for a marquee matchup after two easy wins to open the season. And he wants to see that block out everything that isn't designed to help Auburn win. “I think leadership is a big part — huge,” Harsin said Monday when asked what he thinks are the qualities of a team that can win big games on the road. “I think that’s got to be, if not the main factor, one of them.” There’s little-to-no room for error this week for Auburn in its preparation, Harsin said. It can’t afford lackadaisical reps by the scout team. There can’t be poorly executed portions of practice. But Harsin isn’t worried about his team’s focus; this is the game they’ve had circled for a long time. He is, however, intrigued to see how they handle real adversity, on the field, for the first time. He said he’s seen them do it in other areas in his nine months as Auburn’s head coach. “Just being resilient and being able to respond, I think, are big keys,” Harsin said. “Those are things, to me, that I think good teams have. … I don’t know if we’ve had all those things happen to us at this point. They have, maybe not on the field but at other times in our program.” One of the most anticipated nonconference matchups of the 2021 begins with ESPN’s College GameDay at 8 a.m. CST on PSU’s campus. The game kicks off in earnest at 6:30 p.m. CST on ABC.

Auburn's offensive communication 'key to winning' at Penn State ByNathan King 5-6 minutes Week Three Preview: Auburn @ Penn State (Late Kick Cut) AUBURN, Alabama — Thanks to crowd restrictions last season and a four-game home stretch to end its 2019 regular season, it's been quite some time since Auburn last played in a true road environment — 689 days, to be exact. A 23-20 loss to Joe Burrow and eventual national champion LSU two years ago was the most recently Auburn has played in front of a capacity crowd in an opposing team's home stadium. Plenty of players from that year's team are still on the roster and have plenty of experience in hostile settings. But plenty of them weren't; players like star running back Tank Bigsby have never played in front of a packed house on the road. "We try to simulate it the best that we can, but until you're there, you don't really know what it's like," senior linebacker Chandler Wooten said Tuesday. The Tigers travel to No. 10 Penn State (2-0, 1-0 Big Ten) on Saturday (6:30 p.m. CST) for their first Big Ten road trip since 1931. College GameDay will be there before the second-biggest crowd in college football makes its way into the stadium. Penn State made Auburn its annual whiteout opponent, which is reserved for the most important home game of the season for the Nittany Lions. Road games don't get much bigger or more anticipated than this one. So there's lots of outside noise leading up to the game to complement the literal noise that No. 22 Auburn (2-0) will be dealing with Saturday night. Auburn's staff — led by Bryan Harsin's signature "1-0" mentality — wants its players to put this game in a vacuum, taking it one play at a time. Otherwise, Wooten said, it's easy to get overwhelmed. "At the end of the day, it comes down to doing your job," Wooten said. "At the end of the day, it's going to be loud, but you've got to line up — there's a man in front of you and you play football, you know? The crowd noise doesn't really affect that at the end of the day. It presents energy and stuff like that and a great home-field advantage, but at the end of the day, we're going out there to play football." The Tigers have put a particular focus on preparing for crowd noise along the offensive line. Senior center Nick Brahms said the biggest challenge an offense can run into on the road is when linemen can't communicate with the quarterback and running backs pre snap, leading to busted plays or wasted timeouts. Brahms has been a part of more than a few such plays in his time at Auburn. "Really, the big thing is just letting the quarterback and the running back know who the offensive line's responsible for," Brahms said. "You know, everybody's a part of that on the offensive line — the guards are a part of that, I'm part of that. Mainly it's the interior three guys. Just doing that and making sure that they know what we're responsible for is big. "... I think that's going to be big this week. That's going to be a key to winning this week." Though its offense is tops in the nation in scoring (61.0 points per game) after beating Akron and Alabama State, Auburn has had more than its fair share of struggles in similar road contests to the one it's facing in Happy Valley. Since its last win over a top-10 team in a true road game — No. 7 Ole Miss in 2014 — the Tigers have averaged 12.6 points per game in such matchups, and have scored only one offensive touchdown or less in six of their nine straight losses to top-10 teams on the road. Maybe this is the year Auburn lights up the scoreboard in a big road setting; maybe the new offense under Harsin is exactly what they needed. Or maybe it's too soon in a new system for Bo Nix to dice up a talented defense in a way that will result in a win. Regardless, Auburn is subscribing to Harsin's philosophy of winning one play at a time. Up front on the offensive line, Brahms knows the Tigers can't afford to take any focus off producing in the run game or protecting Nix, lest they find themselves trailing early in front of 100,000-plus fans rooting for their downfall. "This is just another football game," Brahms said. "We can't let the external environment control what we do on offense, especially. We know it's going to be loud. So we're going to prepare for it, and we're going to be ready. We're planning to succeed."

Auburn defense faces ‘different challenge’ presented by Penn State offense By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com 5-6 minutes Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford (14) hands off to wide receiver Jahan Dotson (5) against Ball State during an NCAA college football game in State College, Pa.,on Saturday, Sept.11, 2021. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)AP Auburn’s defense has been on a tear to open the season, allowing just 10 total points and just 3.03 yards per play through the first two weeks. Confidence is high for Derek Mason’s unit, but now comes the real test. After suffocating the offenses of Akron and Alabama State in short order, No. 22 Auburn’s defense is turning its attention to No. 10 Penn State — a team that has averaged 30 points per game through the first two weeks of the season and has some experienced playmakers on that side of the ball. “Offensively, they can be explosive,” Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. “And those are things we have to focus on this week and things that we’ve seen in the last couple games that they’ve been able to do.” There are three players in particular that Harsin mentioned during his weekly press conference that are on Auburn’s radar ahead of Saturday’s showdown: quarterback Sean Clifford and wide receivers Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington. Clifford, a redshirt senior with 22 starts under his belt, is the rudder steering the Nittany Lions’ offense. He is one of seven players in Penn State history with more than 5,000 career passing yards and 6,000 total yards on his resume, and he has gotten off to a strong start to his final season. The former four-star prospect has completed 39-of-62 passes for 477 yards and a pair of touchdowns while guiding Penn State to a 2-0 start, with a season-opening win on the road against then-No. 18 Wisconsin and a home-opening thrashing of Ball State last weekend. Along with his passing numbers, Clifford has rushed for 71 yards and a touchdown this season, putting him over 800 rushing yards for his career. “He’s a very experienced guy, being a redshirt senior,” Auburn linebacker Chandler Wooten said. “He’s been in a lot of big games; he’s played in a lot of big-time showdowns, so we know we’re getting an experienced quarterback. Obviously, he’s able to beat you with his feet and his arm, so he can make all the throws, and just having the extra dynamic of being able to run gives him a different challenge for the defense.” Clifford’s skillset varies considerably from that of the quarterbacks Auburn has faced so far this season against Akron and Alabama State, and Wooten mentioned it’s evident the veteran has an impressive command of Penn State’s offense “with the way he reads a defense and makes checks.” But Clifford isn’t alone in making Penn State’ offense run. He has a talented duo of wide receivers he has leaned on through the first two games this season in Doston, a third-team All-Big Ten selection last season, and Washington, who earned Freshman All-America honors from The Athletic last season. Dotson and Washington have each caught 10 passes so far this year and have been the focal points of the Nittany Lions’ passing attack. Dotson has 10 receptions for 167 yards and a pair of touchdowns, averaging 16.7 yards per catch, while Washington has 10 for 104 yards through two games. “Those two being dynamic playmakers on the outside and in the slot, it presents a challenge for our defense,” Wooten said. “They’re very explosive players; they play bigger than their size, and so they’re just great after the catch — able to make guys miss, going up over the top and make big plays. Definitely have to be ready for that.” Penn State’s offense hasn’t been predicated on the vertical passing game, with the team averaging just 7.8 yards per pass attempt. Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe said the Nittany Lions rely a lot on screens and quick passes out of various formations, but Penn State has been opportunistic with its big plays in the passing game. In the opener against Wisconsin, Penn State broke a scoreless tie in the third quarter with a 49-yard bomb from Clifford to Dotson on the way to an 16-10 road win. Dotson’s second touchdown of the season came against Ball State, as the senior receiver weaved through defenders on a screen for a 25-yard score. Auburn’s defense has been sharp this season, but the Tigers’ secondary has expressed a desire to improve its play moving forward. Now, Auburn will have its chance against a Penn State offense that presents a “unique challenge” for the Tigers, who to this point have boasted one of the nation’s best defenses, statistically, this season. “We just have to keep a cap on that (in the secondary) and eliminate the explosive plays, but we know they’re going to go for the big plays,” Pappoe said. “So, yeah, we just have to do our best to stay on top of that.” Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

Auburn Football Statistically speaking: Auburn has nation’s top scoring offense, defense Updated: Sep. 13, 2021, 12:15 p.m. | Published: Sep. 13, 2021, 7:00 a.m. Sep 11, 2021; Auburn, AL, USA; Bo Nix (10) throws the ball during the game between Auburn and Alabama State at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Todd Van Emst/AU AthleticsTodd Van Emst/AU Athletics 3,197 shares By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com Let’s get this caveat out of the way: Auburn’s first two games of the season weren’t against the toughest competition. The Tigers opener against an Akron team that is now 1-24 in its last 25 games and expected to be among the worst teams in FBS this season, and then they followed it up with a tune-up against in-state FCS program Alabama State. It wasn’t exactly murderer’s row for Auburn to open the Bryan Harsin era. Yet there’s something to be said for the Tigers through the first two weeks of the season, as they have taken care of their business -- in convincing fashion both times -- while other big-time programs have struggled against lesser competition. It’s why, as No. 22 Auburn (2-0) prepares for its first real test of the year against No. 10 Penn State (2-0), the Tigers find themselves with the nation’s top scoring offense and No. 1 scoring defense this season. Auburn is averaging 61 points per game so far, and its 122 total points through the first two weeks is the fourth-most points to open a season in program history. The last time the Tigers posted back-to-back 60-point games to open a season came all the way back in 1932 -- nearly nine decades ago. Auburn’s 9.84 yards per play this season is also tops in the nation, as the Tigers are almost averaging a first down every time they snap the ball. Defensively, Auburn is holding opponents to just five points per game after posting its first shutout since 2019 (a span of 15 games). Derek Mason’s defense is also limiting opposing offenses to just 3.03 yards per play, which also ranks first among FBS teams, just ahead of Georgia’s 3.13 yards allowed per play. It has been an impressive, if not challenging, start for Auburn under Harsin, and the Tigers have done what they’re supposed to do through the first two weeks. Now, the real season begins this weekend with a trip to Happy Valley to take on No. 10 Penn State. It’s the first of six games against teams currently ranked in the AP poll remaining on Auburn’s schedule, and the first of four against top-10 teams. The Nittany Lions are allowing just 11.5 points per game and putting up 30 points per game, so the Tigers will be put to the test in their primetime nonconference showdown. Here’s a look at how Auburn stacks up statistically, in the SEC and among FBS teams, through the first two weeks of the season: RUSHING OFFENSE (SEC rank, FBS rank) 2013: 328.3 (1st, 1st) 2014: 255.5 (2nd, 13th) 2015: 196.4 (5th, 35th) 2016: 271.3 (1st, 6th) 2017: 218.3 (4th, 26th) 2018: 167.5 (10th, 68th) 2019: 199.1 (4th, 33rd) 2020: 162.5 (7th, 67th) After Akron: 316.0 (3rd, 11th) 2021: 340.0 (2nd, 3rd) Why: Auburn rushed for 364 yards against Alabama State, with two players eclipsing the 100-yard mark. Freshman Jarquez Hunter runs his way into Auburn record book The freshman running back set a program record with a 94-yard touchdown run against Alabama State and now has back-to-back 100-yard games to open his career.

247sports.com Tigers to crank up the volume in practice to prepare for big road crowd ByMark Murphy 4 minutes AUBURN, Alabama–When the Auburn football team returns to the practice field on Tuesday, Coach Bryan Harsin said it will be time to pump up the volume as his Tigers prepare for their first road game of the season. On Saturday night at Penn State, 106,572 fans are expected to be in Beaver Stadium to check out the SEC vs. Big Ten matchup. Harsin said there are a variety of ways to prepare for crowd noise. “It is interesting when you get on a new staff, everybody has done things differently and so I have actually kind of enjoyed hearing different ways people have prepared for noise. “Ultimately, we have a speaker system and all of that,” Auburn’s first-year head coach noted. “I don’t think we are going to get it exactly like it is going to be on game night. We will crank the music up with the sound, the crowd noise, whatever it is we have to use to make it very loud.” Saturday’s game will be Auburn’s first trip to Penn State and just the third game ever vs. the Nittany Lions. The series is 1-1 with both matchups played in bowl games. “I think ultimately, part of playing on the road in front of a crowd noise, you do have crowd noise, you do need to deal with that, but it is all of the other things, too,” Harsin said. "You are not going to have the rest of the team. We travel 80 guys. That might even be better for us at the end of the day–maybe more focused because there’s less distractions on the side.” Saturday's matchup, which is scheduled for TV coverage on ABC beginning at 6:30 p.m. CDT, is Penn State’s “Whiteout Game,” which normally is the loudest home environment of the season for the Nittany Lions. “We have to do a great job of identifying what is happening and know that the other 10 guys around you are going to do their job,” Harsin said. “That is a big part of preparation knowing the other guys around you are going to do their job because there may not be an opportunity to communicate. Our defense has had to deal with that at home the last two games where our crowd has been loud and making it difficult on the offense.” Auburn’s head coach added, “If we do it right, it shouldn’t be too much of a factor for us.” He also said he believes it is important to take a positive attitude into a college football road test like this one with the 22nd-ranked Tigers facing No. 10 Penn State. Both teams will bring a 2-0 record into the contest and Auburn's coach said he is going to tell the Tigers to "embrace" the challenge. *** Subscribe: Receive the latest Auburn intel and scoops*** 56COMMENTS “Enjoy the opportunity to play in somebody else’s house and you go in there and play good football,” Harsin said. “To me it is more really about the mindset you take into the week.” On the subject of crowd noise, Harsin praised the energy the Auburn student section has brought to Jordan-Hare Stadium in his first two games as head coach of the Tigers, but he also has a request to turn down volume when Auburn has the football and is calling signals at the line of scrimmage. The noise led to a delay of game penalty on the Tigers in the red zone on Saturday vs. Alabama State. "We probably need to make sure we calm that down a little bit," he said.

Auburn updates depth chart ahead of showdown with Penn State By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com 3 minutes Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter (27) catches a pass against Alabama State during the first half of an NCAA football game Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)AP Auburn has tweaked its official two-deep depth chart ahead of its top-25 nonconference showdown with No. 10 Penn State. The Tigers released their weekly depth chart early Monday afternoon, with updates to three positions on offense. The first was the inclusion of freshman Jarquez Hunter on the depth chart at running back, where he now appears alongside senior Shaun Shivers in the No. 2 spot behind Tank Bigsby. Hunter and Shivers are separated by an “OR” for the backup running back job. Hunter’s rise up the depth chart comes after the freshman out of Mississippi opened his career with back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances. He’s the first Auburn freshman running back to open his career with consecutive 100-yard games since Onterio McCalebb in 2009. Hunter led Auburn in rushing during its 62-0 win against Alabama State, running for 147 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. That included a 94-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, which broke the program record for longest run from scrimmage. He earned the game ball from coach Bryan Harsin in the locker room after the win. Hunter leads Auburn this season with 257 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, averaging 15.1 yards per carry. The other changes to the depth chart came along the offensive line, where the Tigers have seemingly settled on a starting five, as co-starters are no longer listed at the left and right guard spots. Brandon Council is now firmly listed as the starter at left guard, while Keiondre Jones has solidified himself as Auburn’s starting right guard. Previously, Alec Jackson was listed as a co-starter at left guard with Council, while Tashawn Manning was the co-starter at right guard with Jones. Council and Jones have started both games so far this season for Auburn and have received the majority of snaps, though Council briefly left last week’s win against Alabama State with an apparent right leg injury before returning to the lineup. Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.