The Auburn Tigers currently sit at 2-1 on the 2026 season in Alex Golesh’s first year on the Plains following a 44-39 loss to the Florida Gators on Sept. 19 in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
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The Tigers now turn their attention to a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores, who they are playing for the fourth consecutive year.
The Commodores enter Saturday’s contest sitting at 3-0 for the early portion of the year after winning as time expired against the North Carolina State Wolfpack in Nashville.
Now against Auburn, Vanderbilt is seeking to win its third in a row in the series, having not lost since the 2023 meeting in Nashville.
Ahead of their trip to the Plains, Commodores Head Coach Clark Lea held his weekly press conference on Monday with the local Vanderbilt media, recapping the win, but also looking ahead to what the Tigers present.
“First SEC game, obviously a road game at Auburn and a great challenge for us,” Lea said. “I’m excited, team’s excited. I think that is a week where we got to find out what team we want to be. And that doesn’t mean it has to go perfect, but we need to see improvement.”
In his initial statement about Auburn, Lea mentioned the potential for explosiveness on offense and the physicality they’ll see from the Tigers defense.
Lea has taken on Defensive Coordinator DJ Durkin in each of the last two matchups, so he knows what he is getting when he takes him on.
“Obviously, from our first three weeks, it’s been sloppy,” Lea said. “We’ve found a way to win. There’s something to be said for that. But this is a team that we’re playing against that isn’t going to allow it to be that easy. They’re explosive on offense. Once again, with DJ Durkin, they’re exceptional on defense. It’s going to be a great environment as it always is down there and we’ll have our work cut out for us.”
One of the things that Lea wants his team to establish well that he has not seen in the first three games of the season is the ground game.
The Commodores are currently averaging 139.3 yards per game in their rushing attack, which is good enough for 13th in the SEC.
“I want to see the run game get going,” Lea said. “Auburn’s not going to make that easy, but we’re going to need to find ways to get some horizontal and vertical stretch to find the spaces.”
Like the Tigers offensive line, the Vanderbilt front five has also experienced some movement. On the strong side, Orion Irving has moved from the tackle spot to the guard spot, while Beau Johnson has moved up from Irving’s backup to the primary strong side tackle.
Meanwhile, the former strong side guard Cade McConnell has moved over to the weak side guard spot. All three changes help make up what Lea feels like is the team’s best five up front.
Lea hopes that front can make way and give quarterback Jared Curtis time to navigate in the pocket, especially after he had the first start of his career against NC State.
One of the things that the head coach hopes to do with the freshman is utilize his mobility, as Curtis rushed 12 times for 64 yards in the win in Nashville.
After having Diego Pavia at quarterback for the last two seasons, being able to do the same thing with Curtis is a tactic Lea thinks could be successful.
“This is something we got to a year ago,” Lea said. “We felt like honestly it served Diego (Pavia) well too, just getting the field spread out, allowing him to see it. With Jared, he’s got the ability to both see it, but also he’s got the arm talent to really go from tick marks to tick marks, and I think that creates stress on a defense.”
Overall though, there are specifics that Lea wants to see his team execute during Saturday’s game that he believes make up a solid plan for success. That includes finishing drives with touchdowns on offense, defending every portion of the field on defense and being consistent with the special teams unit.
Most importantly, it is keeping the Auburn offense on the sideline. If the Commodores do that, Lea believes that will help give them a chance to win each game in SEC play.
“We want all three phases to apply pressure,” Lea said. “Particularly this weekend where you’re playing a high-tempo offense that’s high octane, that’s going to look for the explosive moments, how do we both keep those explosive moments contained so not in the end zone, and then two, how do we maintain possession of the ball? Keep that offense off the field. That’s a winning formula for us for every league game.”
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
