The week has flipped for the Auburn Tigers following a 21-point loss to LSU on Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium, dropping them to 4-3 on the season and 2-3 in SEC play.
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The Ole Miss Rebels now sit ahead of Alex Golesh’s squad as the Tigers will hit the road to Oxford, Mississippi on Saturday for its third road game in the month of October.
The two programs have not met since 2023, when the Rebels won on the Plains. Just like the LSU game though, both sides have new leaders, as Auburn has Golesh, while Ole Miss promoted Pete Golding to the position shortly after Lane Kiffin left.
Golding’s team is 5-2 on the year and 3-2 in the conference after a loss to the Texas Longhorns, trying to achieve bowl eligibility and keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive in this game.
However, this is another new challenge for the Rebels, something Golding keyed in on during his weekly press conference on Monday in Oxford.
The first thing he mentioned when it came to discussing the Tigers was the ability of quarterback Byrum Brown and his ability to do things in both the pass and run game.
“Obviously the offense runs through the quarterback,” Golding said. “Dual-threat guy, leads the SEC in quarterback run game, so you got to be able to account for him on base downs. Obviously there’s quarterback designed runs, and then the ability to extend the play. Really strong arm. I mean there’s one of those throws about 75, 80 yards in the air, hits the guy in stride.”
Brown’s play is just a small part of the tempo that Auburn plays with, but he noted other things that Joel Gordon’s offense likes to do.
As a result of the Tigers’ desire to spread teams out and create odd looks, Golding knows his defense is going to have to be locked in, especially in man coverage.
“They’re going to get their cleats on the ground really fast. They use horizontally all the grass, the spacing of the receivers splits you out of the ballpark, which creates a numbers issue. So you load the box, you’re going to create some one-on-ones outside. With that being said, you got to be able to play man-to-man. You got to have elite eye control, a lot of double patterns and things like that when you do play man.”
At the end of the day though, all of it rolls back around to what Brown can do with his legs, as he currently leads Auburn in rushing yardage through the first seven games of the season.
“The key to the drill to me is you got to eliminate the quarterback run game,” Golding said. “You got to create some negative yardage plays early to get them obvious passing downs so you change the picture and the coverage for them. So no different than every weekend. In this league, to me, you got to be able to stop the run. I think there’s just a little more quarterback designed than we;ve seen this year up to this point.”
On the other side of the ball, DJ Durkin is no abnormal face to the Ole Miss program, as he worked in Oxford when Lane Kiffin was there.
With the familiarity with what Durkin likes to throw out on defense, Golding understands that there is not only a lot of film on him from this season, but prior years as well.
He said they will have to account for both the past and present when prepping for what the Rebels offense will see Saturday.
“I think Durkin’s always done a really, really good job everywhere he’s been,” Golding said. “So we’ll have to go back and see some things that he’s done versus us in the past and make sure we have a good plan of what he’s done, but also kind of what the current theme is versus the offense and some new wrinkles that they’re seeing week in and week out and make sure we get it corrected.”
The Tigers will face off against Ole Miss on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. CST at Vaught Hemingway Stadium, and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
