After claiming a 16-13 victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks in the game's final moments, the No. 15 Auburn Tigers are hard at work preparing to face the No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium Saturday.
"Everybody knows we have a great challenge this week, another tough road game against a very good football team," said coach Gene Chizik. "It's going to be a great challenge for us. We're going back on the road, and I feel like our team is getting a little bit better of an idea of playing on the road and the challenges of that that come with these tough SEC road games."
The work-in-progress Tigers are 4-1 for the season and 2-0 in the SEC, and the Razorbacks are the third conference opponent Auburn faces this season.
"They execute extremely well," Chizik said of the Razorbacks. "There's no question about that. I think everybody knows they have three very talented wide receivers that are very explosive, very fast. They're very good with the ball in their hands after the catch. Their running game is always extremely physical. They have big (running) backs. Their quarterback is very well coached. We have to play much better than we have the previous two outings to give us a chance to win. I'm talking defensively as we know that, and this is an offense that is tough to slow down."
As defending national champions, the Tigers have struggled defensively since the start of the season. They managed to make impressive comebacks against opponents like Utah State and South Carolina, and Auburn's strength will be tested by a top-ranked team once again.
"You hope they're getting better every week in terms of trusting each other and relying on each other as a unit," Chizik said. "I think they are. I think this is going to be a great test because there are going to be some things that happen in this game right now that they're going to have to overcome in terms of negative things happening. That's just the pressure this offense is going to put on your defense.
"I think this is going to be a phenomenal test for our guys. We've faced some really good offenses up to this point. That's 100 percent fact. This one right here may be the best out of all the ones we've faced. I think it's going to be a really good test for our guys right now because I think they do feel like in the last two weeks, progress has been made."
Arkansas has claimed three of the last four matchups against Auburn.
"This is about Auburn, it's not about Arkansas," Chizik said. "We'll continue to try and improve ourselves."
Although Auburn lost to Clemson this month, it has won 10 consecutive conference games and 11 straight against SEC opponents--the longest streak since 2003-05. As well, six of Auburn's last eight wins have been against teams that were ranked or are currently ranked.
"I think this league is full of talent, and it's at every position," Chizik said. "You're going to see linebackers that are just unbelievable, and then you're going to play another team and you're going to see two or three defensive linemen that keep showing up and popping up. You're going to see defensive backs that just make tremendous plays with the ball in the air.
"It's all over the league. I think there's so much talent from top to bottom. You just even look in our west side alone and how many great defensive players you can think of. There are a lot of them. Again, just the whole league I think top to bottom has them."
Arkansas ranks seventh in the NCAA in points per game at 39.4, as well as logging 471.8 total yards per game. However, the Razorbacks are allowing 22.8 points per game and 388.4 total yards for the opposing team this season.
Auburn averages 30.6 points per game, allowing 27.4 for the opposing team. The Tigers also average 186.6 rushing yards and 184 passing yards per game.
"I think that we made some strides this past week, certainly defensively on third downs," Chizik said. "I think we've made some improvements there with pressuring the quarterback, whether we were blitzing or not. The last couple of games, we've started to get turnovers defensively, which I think we've improved there. If you go to the offensive side of the football, we were able to possess the football a good bit of the time Saturday, which certainly helped when you run 90-something plays. I think we have a better idea running the football now of what we can and can't do. We certainly haven't arrived in any of the areas, but we have a better idea of where we're at."
Even so, only time will tell whether or not the Tigers can improve quickly enough to beat the season's more difficult opponents, like Florida, LSU and Alabama. Overcoming recent injuries and stifling inconsistency will be determining factors concerning the team's success.
The Auburn Tigers will play the Arkansas Razorbacks Saturday at 6 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on ESPN.
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