TAMPA, Fla. — Coming into Wednesday’s matchup with No. 18 Minnesota, Auburn averaged 211.3 yards per contest throughout its 2019-20 campaign. Running backs JaTarvious Whitlow, D.J. Williams, Shaun Shivers and Kam Martin all averaged, roughly, five yards per carry.
That was, until the Outback Bowl.
When they need to run the ball in Auburn’s New Year’s Day showdown with the Golden Gophers, the Tigers were unable to produce. The orange and blue had seven different rushers attempt a combined 26 carries, and were only able to come away with 56 yards on the ground.
When addressing the media in his post-game press conference, Gus Malzahn noted that his team’s inability to get any form of momentum in the run game was the Achilles heel of the Tigers in Wednesday's 31-24 loss.
“We only had 56 (yards), and that surprised me,” Malzahn said. “They got after us up front, and I just think that’s the facts of the matter.”
Malzahn’s claim that Minnesota dominated in the trenches can be clearly bolstered by the fact that Auburn’s lead rusher was Whitlow, racking up an underwhelming 24 yards on nine attempts. The junior was followed up by Williams (13 yards on five attempts) and Nix (12 yards on six attempts).
When asked about his thoughts regarding the run game, and his role within it, Nix confirmed the observation that the Tigers were unable to get in any form of rhythm.
“At times we ran the ball decent,” Nix said, “And at times we didn’t, so we just never got in a rhythm.”
In terms of yardage and yards-per-attempt, the 2020 Outback Bowl is the worst game on the ground since the Tigers were only able to put up a net of 19 against Texas A&M in 2018.
Auburn’s season has now reached its end, and — following such a poor rushing performance against Minnesota — the attention of Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chad Morris will likely turn to correcting what the offense did not do well in the Outback Bowl, as well as looking at their running back room for the future.
Whitlow could return, but he's also now draft-eligible as a redshirt sophomore. Williams will surely compete for touches next season near the top of the depth chart while 5-star freshman signee Tank Bigsby will enter the fray as Auburn's highest-rated tailback recruit since Roc Thomas in 2014.
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