Saban not taking Auburn ground game for granted
Auburn is coming off a 340yard rushing performance in last Saturday’s 53-0 shellacking of Liberty.
That provided a nice reprieve for coach Gus Malzahn’s inconsistent ground game, but the Flames didn’t exactly line up with Isaiah Buggs, Raekwon Davis and Quinnen Williams across their defensive front. Those three menaces and more await the Tigers (7-4, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) this weekend when they visit No. 1 Alabama (11-0, 7-0).
“You just have to be real that they don’t have the same personnel,” Malzahn said Wednesday about Liberty and the Crimson Tide, the Tigers’ final two regular-season foes. “At the same time, to have a chance to win this game, we’re going to have to be balanced. We’ve got to be able to run the football effectively enough, and I think that is a big factor.”
The Tigers are a mediocre 69th nationally in rushing offense, having averaged 167.2 yards per game. It’s a misleading clip given that Auburn not only rushed for 340 yards last weekend but for 429 in its Sept. 8 game against Football Championship Subdivision member Alabama State, which was a 63-9 laugher.
Take away those two mismatches, and Auburn’s average of 118.9 rushing yards per game would rank an abysmal 118th nationally.
“You’ve got to raise your level in this game,” Malzahn said. “You’ve got to raise your level and find a way to get it done. We know each other very well. We know what we’ve got to be able to do, but you’ve got to do it. You have to raise your level to be able to do it.”
Auburn has four new offensive line starters and a new leading rusher from last season’s Tigers, who won the SEC’s Western Division with a 26-14 downing of Alabama. Kerryon Johnson, who bypassed his senior year and is having a solid rookie season with the Detroit Lions, rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown during last November’s Iron Bowl.
Current Tigers quarterback Jarrett Stidham added 51 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries, which represented a third of his rushing yardage for the season.
As a team, Auburn rushed 49 times for 168 yards in last year’s Iron Bowl. That’s only 3.4 yards per carry, but it met the “effectively enough” desire Malzahn seeks again.
Redshirt freshman JaTarvious “Boobie” Whitlow leads Auburn in rushing this season with 716 yards and 5.8 per carry, but the Tigers are running out of games in which Malzahn can extend his streak of having at least one 1,000-yard rusher to a 10th consecutive year.
Alabama has allowed an average of just 112.5 rushing yards a game this season, but Tide coach Nick Saban isn’t dismissing Auburn’s 340-yard rushing performance, even though it occurred two weeks after the Tigers managed just 19 rushing yards during a 28-24 comeback triumph over Texas A&M.
“I don’t think you discount it,” Saban said Wednesday. “Obviously there is not a lot of parity with those teams compared to the others they’ve played, but they’ve always been able to run the ball, and we’ve always struggled to stop them running the ball. We know it’s important we do a good job against their run game and create positive down-and-distance situations for us.
“We respect what they just did, and we know how important it is to do a good job against their running game.”
Reserving judgment
Malzahn was asked this week if this will be the best Alabama team he has faced. Malzahn was Auburn’s offensive coordinator when the Tide won the 2009 and 2011 national championships, which were sandwiched around Auburn’s 2010 crown.
Malzahn went 9-3 in his one season as head coach at Arkansas State in 2012, when Alabama humiliated Auburn 49-0 and humbled Notre Dame 42-14 to win a third national title in four years. As the Tigers’ head coach, he has faced Alabama’s title teams of 2015 and 2017, handing last year’s Tide their lone defeat.
“First of all, they’ve had a lot of really, really good teams,” Malzahn said. “I think that’s the first thing. You look at statistically what they’ve done, and it’s very impressive, especially in our league. Their offense is in the top 10 in the country, and their defense is in the top 10, and that’s what really stands out to you.
“You never know until you play someone to answer that question correctly, but they are a challenging team, no doubt. They’re good in all three phases.”
Damien Harris cleared
Saban said senior running back Damien Harris has cleared concussion protocol and is practicing. Harris, who was injured at the end of a 73-yard run in last weekend’s 50-17 trampling of The Citadel, leads the Tide with 678 rushing yards and has averaged 6.3 yards per carry this season.
“We hope without setback that he’ll be OK,” Saban said.