Auburn’s ground game has spent the first five games of the season searching for an answer, and offensive coordinator Joel Gordon isn’t pretending otherwise.
The Tigers have had a few flashes - Byrum Brown’s 107 total rushing yards against Tennessee stands out - but for the most part, the run game has been stuck in neutral during SEC play. On Monday, Gordon addressed why the production has fallen short.
“I think every game that we've played we’ve tried to give [the rush] an opportunity to get going,” he said. “We didn’t get out to a very good start in the last game.
[We] didn't have great field position early on, and to be honest with you, that's when you need to be able to run it, to dig yourself out of a hole. We weren’t able to do it.”
Through the opening stretch, Auburn’s leading rusher hasn’t been a running back at all. It’s been Brown, the quarterback, who has piled up 344 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 81 carries.
Jeremiah Cobb has handled the starting job since September and leads the tailbacks with 245 yards and two touchdowns on 45 carries. He’s averaging 5.4 yards per carry, but the volume has been limited in SEC play - just 21 carries across three conference games, and he hasn’t topped 12 carries in any outing.
Omar Mabson, who was viewed as the underdog for the job back in the spring, has been the most efficient runner among Auburn backs with at least 10 carries. He’s gone for 213 yards and a touchdown on 23 attempts, good for 6.7 yards per carry. Still, much of that damage came against Southern Miss, leaving questions about how that production carries over against SEC fronts.
Bryson Washington, the Baylor transfer who was once considered a strong candidate for the RB2 role, has not found much room to operate. He has 71 yards on 18 carries, a 3.9-yard average.
Auburn used the bye week to reset, but the challenge waiting on the other side is immediate: No. 1 Georgia, fresh off a win over Alabama, comes to town this weekend.
Even with that matchup looming, Gordon made it clear Auburn isn’t planning to overhaul its approach on the ground.
“At the end of the day, we have to be able to overcome whatever it is,” he said. “We’re backed up, it's noisy, whatever it is, it’s going to be that way every single week.
We have to continue to find the best things for our players to be able to be in situations where they can go and execute, and when we put them in those situations, we have to execute. It’s top to bottom.
We’re going to try to run the ball every single week. That's not going to change.”
In Other News...
Auburn Just Got A Preseason SEC Message Fans Will Debate
Auburn got its first noteworthy league read on the upcoming season when the SEC preseason media poll slotted the Tigers ninth in the conference. It is the kind of early judgment that gets fans talking before a game is even played, especially for a program that has learned how quickly a ranking can become bulletin-board fuel once league play gets rolling.
One encouraging sign did come Auburns way in the same round of preseason buzz: junior point guard Tahaad Pettiford landed on the preseason All-SEC third team. Auburn also checks in at No. 25 in the preseason KenPom rankings, a reminder that the Tigers are still being viewed as a team with real potential even as expectations remain middling on paper. The next chance to shape that narrative arrives soon enough with SEC Tipoff events in Hoover, Alabama. [Read more 🡒]
Georgias Alabama Escape Just Added More Fuel To Auburns Worry
Georgias 20-17 road win at Alabama didnt just shuffle the national picture, it also put another spotlight on a defender Auburn fans know well from the opposite sideline. The Bulldogs left Tuscaloosa as college footballs new No. 1 team, and one of the biggest flashpoints came on a disputed non-pass interference call involving KJ Bolden, a play that helped turn an already tense game into a talking point beyond the final score.
Bolden later said he would have wanted the call if the roles were reversed, which fit the competitive edge Georgia has leaned on all season from its young safety. Through five games, he has been one of the Bulldogs more active pieces on defense with 22 tackles and an interception, the kind of early-season production that only deepens Auburns concern about what Georgia is building on that side of the ball. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Gets A Week 8 Setup Fans Will Be Watching Closely
The SEC has started to lay out Week 8, and with kickoff times now set, several league teams are staring at games that could ripple well beyond one Saturday. Auburn is among the programs feeling the weight of the schedule, since the Tigers are still trying to steady themselves in a conference race that has become increasingly crowded, while the leagues top contenders keep stacking high-stakes matchups around them.
For Auburn, the timing matters because the next stretch is going to reveal a lot about where the Tigers fit in the SEC hierarchy after the latest round of results. The broader league picture already has Texas, LSU, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and others positioned in games with real College Football Playoff implications, so every week now comes with extra scrutiny and very little margin for error. [Read more 🡒]