The Hugh Freeze era of Auburn football opened with a rout, as the Tigers were 59-14 victors over UMass. The 59 points scored were Auburn’s most in a game since putting up 62 against Alabama State on Sept. 11, 2021. The point total, however, only tells part of the story of Hugh Freeze’s first win on the Plains. It was not just an offensive outburst, but rather a complete team effort that led to the victory.
Of the offense’s eight scoring drives, only one was longer than 70 yards. The Tigers totaled 492 yards of offense in the game over 12 drives, creating an average of 42 yards per drive. Despite this, the Tigers scored on 67% of their drives. The reason: the short fields the defense and special teams unit gave the offense.
The game began with special teams fireworks. Brian Battie returned the opening kickoff 38 yards. Later, he had a 30-yard kick return. Keionte Scott returned a punt 56 yards to the UMass 16-yard line late in the first quarter.
In total, Battie had 86 yards worth of kick returns, Auburn’s highest total since earning 96 against Mississippi State on Nov. 13, 2021, and Scott earned 67 yards returning punts.
Auburn’s average starting field position was at its 39-yard line, 11 yards better than the UMass offense’s average starting position. Auburn’s advantage in starting field position was largely due to the efforts of the defense, which forced the Minutemen to punt from inside their own 30-yard line four times. Three times, the defense forced UMass to go three-and-out.
The defense was aided by several UMass penalties. The Minutemen’s offense was penalized five times during the game, costing UMass for 35 yards. The lost yardage, both on Auburn’s tackles for loss and in penalties, was important in shifting the field position battle in Auburn’s favor.
“(Auburn’s defense) crushed the pocket some, which was good to see,” said head coach Hugh Freeze. “We won the turnover battle, which is a goal of ours every week and we won the penalty battle, I believe, also, so those are two things that we want to win every single week…It was good to see our defense play hard.”
It could be argued that no defender contributed as directly to the outcome as defensive back Jaylin Simpson. After defensive back Donovan Kaufman forced a fumble, Simpson picked it up and returned it 13 yards to the UMass 35-yard line. Later, in a direct contribution to the 59-point effort, Simpson returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown. In total, Auburn scored 13 points off the UMass turnovers.
“I got my first college touchdown. I’m so excited about that,” Simpson said.
Simpson’s touchdown was the pinnacle of what was a dominant game from both Auburn’s defense and special teams. As the two units had their own success, they each set the offense up for success in Auburn’s best scoring performance in nearly two years.
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Matthew is a senior from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.
Twitter: @mattwallaceAU
