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1. Auburn Football

Auburn report card: Tigers receive strong marks in 59-14 win over UMass

• Updated: Sep. 03, 2023, 10:19 a.m.|
• Published: Sep. 03, 2023, 6:00 a.m.

Auburn running back Brian Battie (21) outruns University of Massachusetts linebacker Jalen Stewart (23) during the first halfSaturday, Sept. 2, 2023, in Auburn, Alabama. (Julie Bennett | preps@al.com) Julie Bennett | preps@al.comJulie Bennett | preps@al.com

 

 

 

 

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• Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

Week 1 is in the books.

 

Auburn demolished UMass 59-14 in the season opener to begin the year 1-0. It got contributions in all three phases. It was a day highlighted by Robby Ashford, Jaylin Simpson and Donovan Kaufman.

 

So it’s time to put some grades in the book too. Here’s the AL.com report card for Auburn’s season-opening win.

 

Offense

 

Grade: A-

 

It’s hard to give anything less than an ‘A’ when you score 59 points. The idea is to score, right? And sure, one of those touchdowns was a Simpson pick-six, but Auburn’s offense had 492 total yards of offense including 289 on the ground.

 

Seven players carried the ball for Auburn. Sean Jackson led the bunch with 64 yards on five carries. Ashford led Auburn with nine carries, and scored three rushing touchdowns.

 

 

Running backs coach Cadillac Williams did a great job putting together a running back group that is so deep with Damari Alston, Jeremiah Cobb and Brian Battie. Auburn put up that performance without Jarquez Hunter playing.

 

 

So why is this not an A+?

 

 

The passing attack was good, but probably not more than good. Auburn had 203 passing yards and while there was a lot of positive passing flashes, there were also the phases of working out kinks in a new offense.

 

 

Payton Thorne finished 10-17 with 141 yards and a touchdown. Ashford completed only two of his six passes. The wide receivers and quarterbacks weren’t always in sync, and Auburn was working a new quarterback in Thorne into the picture.

 

So all this makes sense. It’s just not quite enough or an A+.

 

 

Defense

 

Grade: B

 

There are two ways to look at this. On one hand, Auburn gave up 72 rushing yards on the first UMass drive, and then only allowed 69 rushing yards for the rest of the game.

 

 

Or, and for the sake of this grade, Auburn could have give up much more if not for forcing UMass to abandon the run because UMass couldn’t stop Auburn’s offense.

 

 

UMass starting running back Kay’Ron Adams had 14 carries for 101 yards, that’s more than seven yards per carry.

 

 

Hugh Freeze said after the game that the run defense is somewhere he hoped to see improvement going forward. It was a question mark coming into this game as Auburn hadn’t been sure if it had a good run offense or bad rush defense.

 

This wasn’t the answer Auburn wanted.

 

 

But the secondary and pass rush were great. Auburn didn’t allow UMass to break the 100 passing yards mark until late in the third quarter. Auburn had for sacks and seven tackles for loss. It found an interesting route to pass rushing success by sending Donovan Kaufman and Keionte Scott on blitzes from the nickel corner spot. UMass wasn’t able to handle that scheme.

 

 

Most of UMass’ positive passing stats came in garbage time. And yet, Auburn did all that without Nehemiah Pritchett playing.

 

 

Special Teams

 

Grade: A+

 

Nothing to not here. Other than a weird onside kick trick play that went awry on Auburn’s kickoff to start the second half, there were no mistakes on special teams.

 

Kicker Alex McPherson was perfect on his only field goal attempt and made all eight of the point after attempts after Auburn’s touchdowns.

 

 

Though Auburn’s returners were the most notable part of the special teams. Brian Battie had 86 kick return yards including a long return for 38 yards on the opening kickoff.

 

 

Keionte Scott had 67 punt return yards across two punts. One return was a 56-yard run down to the UMass 16.

 

 

Maybe you could knit pick and say it could have been better if Auburn had a special teams touchdown. I don’t think that’s necessary to get an A+.

 

 

Coaching

 

Grade: A-

 

There were no notable coaching decisions that went poorly in this game. So the A- grade comes from how well Freeze and the offensive staff were able to figure out the role for Robby Ashford. Using him as a redzone weapon was a creative scheme, and Ashford proved his coaches right.

 

A very well-developed game plan.

 

 

Overall

 

Grade: A-

 

Auburn won 59-14. Sure, it’s UMass — regarded as one of the worst FBS teams. But it’s hard to argue 59-14. The players can’t control what teams are on their schedule, the just want to play well.

 

 

And Auburn did play well.

 

 

There is only so much to take away from this game since it was the first game of the year and against UMass. This wasn’t expected to be a perfectly complete project.

 

 

But Saturday against UMass showed flashes, enough flashes at least, of potential. This is going to take time to get everything right. And that’s okay. Hugh Freeze has been transparent on this point: this is a slow process, and putting together this team of transfers is among the biggest challenges he’s ever had.

 

So a performance like Auburn had Saturday was a good starting point.

[SaltyTiger 8,579]

2 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

i just read where Cal had 669 yards of total "O". it is a worry................

Well bless their little golden bear hearts….more concerned here about kicking off at an outlaw time in my book. Asked Mrs Salty if she wanted to go to San Francisco this week and she said no interest plus I don’t attend most games here. Just think I could adjust to the time better “on location”. 
 

Good stuff and don’t worry Fiddy

 

 

[aubiefifty 18,259]

8 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Well bless their little golden bear hearts….more concerned here about kicking off at an outlaw time in my book. Asked Mrs Salty if she wanted to go to San Francisco this week and she said no interest plus I don’t attend most games here. Just think I could adjust to the time better “on location”. 
 

Good stuff and don’t worry Fiddy

 

 

i never got to see bob but his band came to jax state back in the day and two of his sons were singing tho they had a lot of family with them and they were really good!

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

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I am not sure if you guys will like this but here it is.

 

 

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

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