Auburn’s offense is putting the run game front and center this week, and the message coming out of the program is loud and clear: the Tigers need more from their rushing attack.
That need showed up in the numbers against Florida. Auburn’s running backs managed just 40 yards on 12 carries in the loss, a production dip that has pushed the staff to spend this week sharpening the details up front and in the backfield before Saturday’s matchup with Vanderbilt.
Center Cole Best said Tuesday that the focus has been unmistakable.
"It's been huge," Best said. "It's always a huge emphasis.
We got a lot we need to clean up right there. Haven't gotten these backs open the way that we need to, and as an offensive line, that's on us, so, you know, we just keep going into our detail, into our craft and just keep straining to get better."
Tight end Jake Johnson echoed that same theme, framing the ground game as the engine of the offense.
"I think in general the running game is the biggest part of football on offense," Johnson said. "So, you can set the tone with the run game and bring them in and throw it deep behind them. I think the running game is always the most important thing and just getting behind that and getting that started, I think it's great for us."
Head coach Alex Golesh pointed to the flow of the Florida game as a major reason Auburn never settled into the kind of rushing rhythm it wanted. He said the Tigers were forced into an offense that was hard to sustain, especially after the early three-and-outs and the sequence around halftime that tilted the game away from Auburn.
"Offensively, about as poor of a start, which is exactly what you thought Saturday night, as poor of a start as you can imagine," Golesh said. "The three and out.
And then to get the ball inside the ten and go three and out and end up with the field goal. Obviously, it was just handled really, really poorly.
And then you claw back and that sequence of giving up a score right before half, in the two minutes, not having enough time to go offensively and then flip it. They get the ball, they go score, we go three and out.
And that ends up being a huge, huge swing. That, if that piece turns out different, you feel like you can play the rest of the game out different.
You end up in an essentially two-minute mode the entire fourth quarter and you claw back, but you're not running your offense the way that you feel like you want to run it. You're not running the ball.
You’re putting the offensive line in a tough spot. Which, in a two-minute situation, when you're drive after drive in that way, everybody knows what you're doing.
Obviously, we mixed in a little bit of run, but your pass setting, it's hard. They're in a rabbit's package where they can get after your quarterback and it's not how you want the game to play out, but that's how it played out."
Auburn now turns its attention to Vanderbilt, with the hope of getting the ground game moving the way it wants on Saturday.
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For a program with Auburns profile, those numbers are hard to ignore because they reflect more than a one-night audience. They speak to how much attention the Tigers are generating right now, and the frustration is that viewership usually follows relevance, momentum and winning. If Auburn wants to bring more eyes back to its games, the on-field product has to give fans a stronger reason to stay tuned. [Read more 🡒]
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John Cohens four-year tenure has become part of that larger discussion, especially as the football side has continued to trend in the wrong direction. The point is not that every issue starts and ends with the athletic director, but Auburn fans looking for the right place to focus their anger may be missing the broader picture of what has gone wrong and why the pressure keeps building. With coaching changes, uneven results and a restless fan base all in play, the hardest part now is figuring out which direction the reset is supposed to go. [Read more 🡒]
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What comes next is a brutal stretch, with Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Alabama all still waiting on the schedule. If Auburn is going to get to bowl eligibility, it likely cannot afford to come up empty in all of those matchups, which is why the Florida setback feels bigger than just one loss. [Read more 🡒]