Jason Caldwell said Auburn came away from Saturday night’s win over Southern Miss with one clear offensive takeaway: the front looked better.
After going back and watching a good portion of the game, he said the Tigers were doing a much better job up front, getting to the second level and finishing blocks. Southern Miss, he noted, is not Baylor on the defensive line, but the improvement was still obvious.
The bigger problem, in his view, was self-inflicted damage. Auburn piled up too many holding penalties, and that’s the kind of thing he said has to be cleaned up this week.
He also came away encouraged by what he saw from Byrum Brown in game two. Caldwell said Brown looked far more decisive as a runner, getting downhill and picking up positive yards.
That, he said, is going to matter a lot this season. Brown also flashed his arm strength with a downfield throw to Jeremiah Koger, though Caldwell felt there were a couple of chances for Brown to get the ball out sooner and that he needs to keep speeding up with Florida coming to town.
There was more to like on the other side of the ball, too. Caldwell thought the interior of Auburn’s defensive line did a better job generating pressure, and he stressed that nothing matters more on defense than pushing the pocket from the middle. If that continues, he believes the group can be elite.
Beyond Auburn, Caldwell said the first two weeks of college football have been full of surprises. He pointed to Michigan beating Oklahoma and Oklahoma State taking down Oregon as results he would not have believed a week earlier, and he said neither one should be treated as a fluke because both teams earned their wins.
He said the SEC remains hard to figure out for just about everybody except Texas. The Longhorns’ comeback win over Ohio State stood out to him, and he singled out Arch Manning for making huge second-half plays to help pull it off.
Auburn-Florida will draw the local spotlight this week, but Caldwell said the game most of the country will care about is LSU-Ole Miss in Oxford on Saturday night. He called it a circus all way and said he’d like to watch it, though the Auburn game being on at the same time means he’ll miss the drama.
Caldwell also used his column to push back on how much football games get dragged out. He said the weather discussion can wait, though he added that the bigger issue there is liability if lightning strikes. His focus was on officiating and the amount of time wasted during games.
He said it was ridiculous that media timeouts were still dragging on more than three hours into a game that started an hour late, especially once the outcome was long decided. But his sharper complaint centered on one third-quarter play against Auburn.
A second-down run was first ruled a first down, then replay stopped the game and, after a couple of minutes, the call was changed to Auburn being just inches short. The Tigers then converted on the next play.
Caldwell’s point was simple: in a situation like that, neither sideline would have complained if play had just continued. He said the spot looked close enough at first glance and that if every play were treated with that level of scrutiny, plenty of spots would end up being a few inches off.
He said he wants the call right, but he also wants a little common sense. Wave the sticks up and keep playing football.
In Other News...
Byrum Browns Unusual Auburn TD Was No Fluke
Byrum Browns night against Southern Miss was packed with the kind of production Auburn will happily take every week, from 319 yards of total offense to three touchdowns in a 43-8 win. But the play everyone kept coming back to was the one that looked almost too unusual to be part of a normal game plan: Brown hauling in a touchdown pass on fourth-and-3, a catch that doubled as his first reception in two seasons and Auburns first quarterback touchdown reception since 2012.
There was nothing gimmicky about it, at least in Alex Goleshs view, who said the call was routine for that situation. Brown, for his part, framed it in the most practical terms possible, stressing the need to do whatever it takes to score. For Auburn, the bigger takeaway is that the Tigers have a quarterback who can create answers in more than one way, even if one of them looks rare enough to stand out long after the final whistle. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Is 2-0 But Alex Golesh Sees A Bigger Problem
Auburn is 2-0 under Alex Golesh after a 43-8 win over Southern Miss, and the Tigers have shown signs of progress on both sides of the ball. The running game and passing game were cleaner than they had been in the opener, giving Auburn a more balanced look and a little momentum heading into a tougher stretch.
Still, Golesh was quick to frame the outing as sloppy rather than satisfying, a reminder that the scoreboard does not erase the mistakes that pile up over four quarters. Auburn has some fine-tuning to do with conference play looming, and the urgency in Goleshs tone made it clear the Tigers cant afford to let the better moments cover for the things still breaking down. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Ground Surge Feels Real But One Bigger Test Still Awaits
Auburn left the Southern Miss game with a rushing performance that looked a lot more like what this offense wants to be. The Tigers averaged 6.7 yards per carry and piled up 343 rushing yards, with Alex Golesh leaning on a balanced ground effort that included Omar Mabson II, Jeremiah Cobb and Byrum Brown. Even with penalties wiping out some gains, the overall picture was better than what Auburn had been putting on tape, and it gave the run game a tangible step forward.
The question now is whether that surge holds up once the competition sharpens and the pressure turns up on the offensive line. Auburn still wants cleaner, more consistent execution in the run game, and the coming weeks should bring a real look at how much of this improvement is sustainable. For a unit still sorting out its identity up front, the next few games may say more than one encouraging afternoon ever could. [Read more 🡒]