Know Your Foe: Struggling Auburn is UK football’s last chance for a 2024 SEC home win
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Preview: Kentucky vs. Auburn
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Auburn football game at Kroger Field.
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Scouting Kentucky football’s next opponent, the Auburn Tigers:
Game details
Kentucky (3-4, 1-4 SEC) will play Auburn (2-5, 0-4 SEC) at 7:45 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Oct. 26, at Kroger Field (seating capacity 61,000) in Lexington.
The game will be telecast by the SEC Network.
Coach Hugh Freeze’s Tigers lost 21-17 at No. 19 Missouri last week.
History and trends
Auburn leads the all-time series with Kentucky 27-6-1. The Tigers have won 18 of the past 19 games with the Wildcats.
Since a 17-7 UK win over Auburn at Stoll Field in 1966, the Cats have subsequently gone 0-9 against the Tigers in Lexington.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops is 0-2 vs. Auburn.
Auburn head man Hugh Freeze has never coached against UK.
As has been much discussed, UK is 2-10 in its 12 most recent SEC home games.
Auburn is 0-5 this season versus power conference opposition. The Tigers’ only victories are over FCS foe Alabama A&M, 73-3, and Mountain West Conference opponent New Mexico, 45-19.
Most recent meeting
On Sept. 26, 2020, Bo Nix threw for 233 yards and three touchdowns and Seth Williams caught six passes for 112 yards and two TDs to lead No. 8 Auburn to a 29-13 home win over No. 23 Kentucky.
In a season whose start was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and the efforts to contain it, a socially distanced crowd of 17,490 inside the 87,451-seat Jordan-Hare Stadium watched the season opener for both teams
UK quarterback Terry Wilson completed 24 of 37 passes for 239 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Wilson also ran 13 times for a net of 42 yards.
Pride of the program
In an epic career as an Auburn running back from 1982 through 1985, Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson became the second Tigers player to win the Heisman Trophy and ran for over 4,000 yards in his college career.
A potent combination of power and speed, the 6-foot-1, 222-pound Jackson had a banner senior season in 1985. Jackson ran for 1,786 yards and 17 touchdowns and was voted that season’s Heisman Trophy winner.
He followed former Auburn quarterback Terry Sullivan, the 1971 winner, in earning the Heisman Trophy. In 2010, Cam Newton gave Auburn a third Heisman winner.
For his college career, Jackson ran for 4,303 yards and 43 TDs while averaging 6.6 yards a carry.
Subsequently, as a professional athlete, Jackson starred as both an NFL running back and an MLB outfielder and became the subject of a famous Nike advertising campaign, “Bo Knows,” which illuminated his athletic versatility.
Three things to know
1. Turnovers have plagued Auburn in 2024. The Tigers entered play against Missouri tied for last among all FBS teams in turnover margin at minus-11.
That will be minus-10 this week, after Auburn forced two Missouri turnovers while only giving the ball up once on a lost fumble.
The miscues largely explain how Auburn’s record is so poor in spite of the fact the Tigers have outgained their opponents this season by 3,239 yards to 2,732 yards.
2. Auburn has had uncertainty this season at quarterback. Former Michigan State QB Payton Thorne started the season as the Tigers starter.
However, after Thorne threw four interceptions in Auburn’s 21-14 loss to California in the season’s second game, Tigers coach Hugh Freeze benched the veteran and installed freshman Hank Brown as the starter.
Brown threw for two touchdowns in Auburn’s 73-3 strafing of Alabama A&M in Week 3. However, after Brown was intercepted three times in the first half of what became a 24-14 loss at Arkansas, Freeze went back to Thorne in the second half of that game.
On the season, the 6-2, 203-pound Thorne has thrown for 1,414 yards with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions and has completed 59.5% of his passes.
3. As tends to be the case with SEC defenses, Auburn is disruptive off the edges.
Rush end Jalen McLeod, a 6-1, 236-pound senior who began his college career at Appalachian State, has made five sacks and 9 1/2 tackles for loss.
Defensive end Keldric Faulk, a 6-6, 288-pound sophomore, has recorded five sacks and seven tackles for loss.
Given the difficulties Kentucky has had in 2024 protecting its quarterbacks from the offensive flanks, whether UK can get McLeod and Faulk blocked figures to be a major key to the game’s outcome.
This story was originally published October 21, 2024 at 7:30 AM.
