Auburn didn’t need him last week, but all signs point to the Tigers starting running back returning for the road trip to Oxford.
Kerryon Johnson injured his ankle against Mississippi State two games ago, and even with the bye week, he wasn’t able to play against Arkansas. Malzahn said he dressed out and gave it his best shot before the game, but the coaching staff elected to keep him out. But Malzahn said things are lining up for Johnson to return on Saturday.
“The good thing is we didn't have to play him last week,” Malzahn said. “I thought that was very important moving forward, not just this game but the rest of the year At this point, I would expect him to play. I think he's moving closer to 100 percent each day.”
As it turned out, the rushing attack did just fine without the starting running back. Kamryn Pettway ran for 169 yards and two touchdowns as the starter in Johnson’s stead, Stanton Truitt scored three times, and Kam Martin added another to pace the Tigers. At the end of the day, the backfield committee piled on 543 yards, an SEC regular-season record.
“That’s pretty good because you know the defense can’t just key on one dude, ‘Oh Kerryon’s here, so we just have to focus on him,’” said receiver Tony Stevens. “We’ve got Pettway, Stanton, Kam, a lot of running backs back there that can just get the rock and go score.”
Auburn will have all running backs healthy, besides freshman Malik Miller, who is still out following knee surgery earlier this month. The rushing attack will be going up against an Ole Miss defense that surrendered 311 rushing yards to Leonard Fournette and LSU last week. Auburn doesn’t have anyone of Fournette’s caliber, but each of the running backs on the roster can step up if called upon, something Malzahn appreciates.
“That's a good problem to have,” Malzahn said. “Take it back to 2013 when we had that crew of running backs that we had. Coach Lashlee can be a little more creative at times with personnel but it's good that we've got that many running backs or really even explosive players that we have.”
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