Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
One-way beats
Tigers on 4-year run of Hog whippings
FAYETTEVILLE — Auburn has a four-game winning streak against the University of Arkansas, and it hasn’t been close.
Whether the game was played at Jordan-Hare Stadium or Reynolds Razorback Stadium, the venue has been a giant woodshed for Arkansas. During the streak, the Tigers have outscored the Razorbacks by an average of 34.2 points.
The closest Arkansas has been to Auburn since 2016 was a 34-3 loss in 2018. Auburn won 56-3 in 2016, 52-20 in 2017 and 51-10 last season.
It’s the first time Auburn has won four consecutive games against the same SEC opponent by at least 31 points.
Despite the series leaning so heavily in No. 13 Auburn’s favor of late, Tigers Coach Gus Malzahn heaped praise on the Razorbacks, who play at Jordan-Hare Stadium at 3 p.m. Central on Saturday.
Malzahn might actually have cause for concern playing Arkansas this time.
Last Saturday while the Tigers were losing 27-6 at No. 4 Georgia, the Razorbacks ended a 20-game SEC losing streak with a 21-14 victory at No. 16 Mississippi State.
In the season’s opening games, Auburn won 29-13 over Kentucky at home while Georgia won 37-10 at Arkansas.
But the Razorbacks were ahead of Georgia into the third quarter while the Bulldogs led the Tigers 24-3 at halftime.
Georgia scored nine points against Arkansas on a safety and interception return for a touchdown, and also had a touchdown set up by a blocked punt.
Under new coordinator Barry Odom, the Razorbacks rank seventh in the SEC and 33rd nationally in total defense (393.5 yards) after ranking 110th (451.2) last season.
“Looking at Arkansas, they had a huge, really a big-time win against a ranked team on the road,” Malzahn said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. “Very impressive when you watch them on the field defensively.
“Their defensive coordinator, Barry Odom, one of the best there is and what he did against that [Mississippi State] offense that set SEC alltime records the week before, he deserves two SEC coach of the week awards with everything that he did with that.
“You look at their defense, they’ve forced six turnovers the first two games. I think they’re second in the league in red-zone defense.”
The Razorbacks are second in the SEC with opponents scoring on 5 of 8 possessions inside their 20 for a 62.5% rate. Florida leads the SEC at 58.3% (7 of 12).
Malzahn said he’s not surprised by Odom’s success early in his Arkansas tenure.
“He’ll have a good plan against us,” Malzahn said. “So we’ll have to be executing at a high level.”
Odom will be calling plays against Auburn offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who was 4-18 as Arkansas’ coach the previous two seasons before being fired after 10 games last season.
“I mean, he knows some of those players, but they’re doing different things now … so we’ll see what happens,” Malzahn said when asked about the impact of Morris having coached the Razorbacks.
Sam Pittman — a veteran offensive line coach who was at Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia the previous nine seasons — replaced Morris as the Arkansas coach.
“What stands out to me is they’re playing extremely hard,” Malzahn said when asked what traits of Pittman and Odom he sees in the Razorbacks. “When you got a team that’s playing extremely hard, I believe that’s coaching, so hat’s off to those guys.”
The Razorbacks are averaging 277.5 yards per game to rank 70th out of 74 teams nationally, but one spot ahead of Auburn at 270.0.
“I’ve always been impressed with Feleipe Franks and the way that he’s playing and running the offense,” Malzahn said of the Razorbacks’ senior graduate transfer from Florida. “Very impressed when he gets outside the pocket. He’s very accurate, and he can hurt you with his legs, too.”
Georgia held the Tigers to 216 yards — their fewest since having 117 in a 14-6 loss at Clemson in 2017 — and Auburn had 81 yards in the first half when the Bulldogs built a 21-point lead.
“They got after us,” Malzahn said in his postgame news conference. “They won the line of scrimmage. We really got whipped on all three phases. We got outcoached.”
Auburn finished with 39 rushing yards.
“The big stat to me was our rushing yards,” Malzahn said. “We got in a situation where we got behind and had to throw it a lot and had trouble protecting, but give them credit.”
Tigers sophomore quarterback Bo Nix, who has started 15 consecutive games, completed 21 of 40 passes for 177 yards with an interception.
“I think the big thing to help him [is] to be more balanced, and to be balanced you’ve got to be successful running the football, too,” Malzahn said. “We’ll work extremely hard on that moving forward, and I think that’ll be a big key.”
Freshman running back Tank Bigsby led Auburn with 31 rushing yards at Georgia on eight carries. He also had seven catches for 68 yards.
“He played hard,” Malzahn said. “That was really what stood out to me. I mean, he could have done some things better, but he played extremely hard, and he played with passion. That’s really what you look for as a coach.”
Auburn has big play receivers in Seth Williams (nine catches for 146 yards this season) and Anthony Swartz (1197). Swartz had 9 catches for 132 yards and 1 touchdown at Arkansas last season, and Williams had 5 for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The Tigers are breaking in four new starters on the offensive line, and that inexperience showed against Georgia. Malzahn said changes could be coming on the line.
“I think Chad and [offensive line] coach [Jack] Bicknell are putting their heads on exactly what that’s going to look like,” Malzahn said. “We’ve got to start settling in and we will. We’ll see what that looks like this week. I know there’s going to be some more competition.”
Linebackers K.J. Britt (23 tackles) and Zakoby McClain (19) lead Auburn’s defense.
“We’ve got eight SEC games left,” Malzahn said. “I think we have the potential to have a lot of improvement – and we will improve.”