Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter was a force to be reckoned with in the Tigers’ 24-10 win over the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night. The Tigers snapped their four-game losing streak, picked up their first SEC win of the season and only win of October.
Hunter ended the night with 278 yards rushing, marking a career-high for the running back and the fourth-best single-game rushing performance in program history. He averaged 12.1 yards per carry on 23 attempts against the Wildcats.
“I got tired of losing. I told Coach Freeze that we were going to find a way to win the game this week,” Hunter said. “I tried to play my hardest for my teammates and the coaches. I tried to give them my all every play I got. I tried to take advantage of the opportunities that I got today. I mean, I tried to wear them out.”
The senior’s dominant offensive performance, however, did not get going until the second half. Hunter recorded only one carry in the first quarter for no gain and four carries in the second quarter for a total of 64 yards. Auburn ended the first half with 75 yards rushing, averaging 4.4 yards per carry.
“We came out and wanted to throw it early and obviously tried,” said Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze about the Tigers’ first half offensive performance. “Our coaching staff did a really good job putting a really good plan together in the running game and it was good to see those running backs run it hard too.”
Heading into the second half tied at 10-10, Auburn opened up the third quarter with a methodical 14 play, 75 yard scoring drive to take its first lead of the contest. The drive started and ended with Hunter carrying the football, and he picked up nine carries for 36 yards on the Tigers’ march down the field, breaking free to give Auburn a first down on a 12-yard run on the second play of the drive.
It was all uphill for Hunter and the Tigers after that.
Hunter rounded out the third quarter with three more carries, including a 50-yard rush up the middle of the field – his longest of the matchup – that set up a field goal to end the quarter.
“To see (Hunter) have that kind of success after feeling the way he did in last week’s game for a kid that's working as hard as he has is gratifying,” Freeze said.
Auburn picked up 251 yards rushing in the second half compared to 75 in the first, and 214 of Hunter’s 278 yards on the ground came in the second half.
Kentucky has held 11 of its last 21 opponents to less than 100 yards rushing, dating back to the Wildcats’ final game of 2022 and limited No. 2 Georgia to just 102 yards rushing.
Hunter managed six carries in the final quarter of the contest, including a 45-yard touchdown to give Auburn a two-possession lead over Kentucky and a 47-yard rush to seal the Tigers’ victory with less than three minutes in the game.
With his dominant performance, Hunter totals 3,033 career rushing yards and moves to sixth in the Tigers’ all-time leading rushers list, passing Ben Tate (3,843 from 2006-09) and Thomas Bailey (3,928 from 1991-94).
Hunter enters November as the SEC’s leading rusher with 863 yards on the ground.
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Grace Heim is a senior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in Political Science. She started with The Plainsman in January of 2023.
You can follow her on X (Twitter) at @graceeheim
