Know Your Foe: Kentucky at Auburn is a battle of coaches on the hot seat
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Preview: Kentucky football at Auburn
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Auburn game in Auburn, Ala.
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Scouting Kentucky football’s next opponent, the Auburn Tigers:
Game details for Kentucky vs. Auburn
Kentucky (2-5, 0-5 SEC) will face Auburn (4-4, 1-4 SEC) on Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium (seating capacity of 88,043) on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.
The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. EDT and be telecast by the SEC Network.
Coach Hugh Freeze’s Tigers won 33-24 at Arkansas last week.
Kentucky-Auburn history and trends
Auburn leads the all-time series with Kentucky 28-6-1.
The Tigers have won three straight against UK and 19 of the past 20 meetings.
UK coach Mark Stoops is 0-2 against Auburn.
Auburn’s Hugh Freeze is 1-0 against Kentucky.
UK has lost its last 10 SEC games in a row and is 2-17 in its 19 most recent conference contests.
Under Hugh Freeze, Auburn is 6-15 in SEC games.
UK’s only win against Auburn since 1966 came in 2009, when Randall Cobb, Derrick Locke, Corey Peters and Co. scored a 21-14 upset of the Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Most recent Kentucky-Auburn football game
Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter ran for 278 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers won 24-10 against Kentucky at Kroger Field on Oct. 26, 2024.
The UK run defense was lacerated by Auburn, which rolled up 326 rushing yards.
Kentucky led 10-0 after one quarter but was outscored 24-0 and outgained 460-190 over the final three quarters of the game.
UK benched starting quarterback Brock Vandagriff at the start of the third quarter and went with backup Gavin Wimsatt in the second half.
The Wildcats did not get the lift they sought, as Wimsatt completed 3 of 10 passes for 34 yards and threw a costly interception on fourth-and-goal from the Auburn 3 with 4:39 left in the game.
Kentucky-Auburn: Three things to know
1. Some might refer to Kentucky-Auburn as the “Jon Sumrall Bowl.”
With questions having risen about the futures of both Kentucky coach Mark Stoops and Auburn head man Hugh Freeze in their current positions, Sumrall, the Tulane head coach, is being linked with both potential vacancies.
Sumrall’s ties to Kentucky are that he is a former Wildcats player and assistant coach.
His tie with Auburn is that Sumrall is a Huntsville, Alabama, native.
Since leaving the UK coaching staff after the 2021 season, Sumrall has gone 38-10 as an FBS head coach, 23-4 in two seasons at Troy and 15-6 midway through his second season at Tulane.
As it regards Sumrall, is this game a case of “to the loser goes the spoils?”
2. After Kani Walker returned a Jackson Arnold interception 89 yards to give Arkansas a 21-10 edge against Auburn with 48 seconds left in the first half Saturday, Freeze benched Arnold, the Oklahoma transfer, and inserted Ashton Daniels in his place.
A former Stanford QB, Daniels led an Auburn comeback that culminated with a 33-24 Tigers win.
A 6-2, 219-pound senior, Daniels completed 6 of 8 passes for 77 yards and ran seven times for 35 yards.
In three seasons at Stanford (2022-24), Daniels completed 60.8% of his passes and threw for 3,986 yards with 21 touchdowns versus 20 interceptions.
3. Another star of Auburn’s win at Arkansas was place-kicker Alex McPherson. He tied an Auburn school record by booting six field goals in the 33-24 win. McPherson hit from 36, 23, 43, 26, 47 and 37 yards.
It was a redemption story for the Auburn kicker, who had missed field goal tries from 40, 38 and 50 yards, respectively, in the Tigers’ 23-17 double overtime loss to Missouri on Oct. 18.
This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 7:23 AM.
