The Auburn Tigers took off in their home opener against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, winning 43-8 on Saturday night in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
The week has now come for the SEC opener, as the Tigers will welcome an old rival back to Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time since 2011. The Florida Gators will arrive on the Plains on Saturday night, looking to take down Alex Golesh and his squad.
Like Auburn, the Gators are now 2-0 on the season, coming fresh off of a 52-3 thrashing of the Campbell Fighting Camels.
The Fighting Camels were the first ones to strike in this game, as Alex Crabb kicked a 29-yard field goal to put Campbell up 3-0 on the day.
Florida took the reins though after that and never looked back.
The Gators responded with a touchdown run, as quarterback Aaron Philo ran one in from 3 yards out, before Patrick Durkin knocked home a 28-yard field goal late in the quarter to push the score to 10-3.
The second quarter is where things turned up for Florida, as Jon Sumrall’s squad put up 35 points.
The Gators began it with a loud punt return that saw Vernell Brown III make a house call of 64 yards, and then do it once again on the Fighting Camels’ next punt, that time going for 70 yards to make it a 24-3 game.
With 9:06 left in the second quarter, Florida got its first passing touchdown of the game when Philo got the ball 40 yards to Dallas Wilson to push things to 31-3.
Brown then got his third score of the afternoon on a 14-yard reception, capping off an 85-yard drive that spanned eight plays.
Running back Jadan Baugh also got his first score of the game with just 20 seconds left in the first half of play, running two yards to get the score to 45-3 heading into the break.
The scoring slowed down drastically in the second half, as the Gators scored just one time the rest of the way.
That score came nearing the end of the third quarter with 3:28 left, as Baugh broke off a 75-yard run to make it a 52-3 game and officially cementing a 2-0 start for the boys from Gainesville.
Philo finished 16-for-21 through the air with 242 yards and two touchdowns, notching a quarterback rating of 71.5 for the day.
The running game as a whole accumulated 214 yards in the victory, with Baugh being the leading rusher at 136 yards on 14 carries and two scores. Byron Louis and Duke Clark were tied behind Baugh, each getting 18 yards in their outings.
Wilson emerged as the leading receiver in the action with five catches for 104 yards and a touchdown, while Brown put up three catches for 43 yards and a touchdown to go along with his two punt return scores.
On defense, Myles Graham led the way with seven total tackles and one tackle for loss. In terms of turnovers, Florida got two fumble recoveries in the game—one coming from Aaron Chiles and the other coming from Myles Johnson.
Auburn will take on the Gators on Saturday, with the opening kick set for 6 p.m. CST on ESPN in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
