After rushing for 326 yards in its win against Kentucky a week ago, Auburn struggled to get any production from its ground game on Saturday against Vanderbilt, totaling just 88 yards on the ground.
“I thought Vandy did a good job. Played a lot of bear front and did a lot of different things that were going to take away some of the run game from us and thought they tackled extremely well,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said postgame. “I will have to watch the film to see how well we strained at the point of attack. It's hard for me to tell that, but some of the credit goes to them. They've been very good against the run all year and were today for sure. Whether or not that was a combination of us poorly executing or whether that was them, I’ll have to watch the film and see."
Jarquez Hunter, who received the Doak Walker National Running Back of the week award after his career-high 278-yard performance against Kentucky and entered Saturday’s game as the SEC’s leading rusher, only rushed for 50 yards on 12 attempts against Vanderbilt.
After receiving high praise for last week’s performance, Freeze mentioned throughout the week that leaning on Hunter and the run game would give the Tigers the best opportunity to have offensive success on Saturday.
But after rushing for 42 yards on 10 carries in the first half, Hunter only saw two carries in the second half - both of those coming in the third quarter with 12:53 and 11:31 left on the clock – and questions arose on if Hunter was banged up for the second half of play.
"I don't think he's banged up, but he did look gassed to me,” Freeze said. “But the second half, I can't remember how many possessions we had, but we didn't have many and when we did it, the last two for sure were ‘we’ve got to go’. So,, you're not handing them (running backs) the ball in those circumstances, but other than that I don't know that we have but two other possessions.”
The rest of the running back room combined for just 38 yards, with Jeremiah Cobb picking up 27 of those on a chunk play.
Despite the lackluster rushing performance by the Tigers, Auburn outgained the Commodores by 100 yards – 327 to 227 – and proved once again that moving the football is not a problem for the offense. Instead, it’s the inability to finish drives with points when presented the opportunity.
“"We can move the football," tight end Rivaldo Fairweather said. "We move the football. Check the stats, we're moving the football. We've just got to learn how to finish. In situations where we need to execute, we need to execute. On third down, we've got to get the first down. The problem is not moving the football, it's just us being able to finish in close games. That's what winning teams have to learn how to do."
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Logan Fowler is a Senior from Sumiton, Alabama and is majoring in journalism. He joined the Plainsman in Spring 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @loganffowler
