Head coach Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers came away with a lot of questions following their 31–15 win over the Jaguars yesterday. Even though the Tigers ended the day with a comfortable win, Auburn’s defense showed definite signs of weakness at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. South Alabama finished the game with more first downs, more passing yards, more time of possession, and a significantly higher completion percentage.
Despite losing the passing battle, Auburn’s defense was able to stifle South Alabama’s rushing game, allowing only 3.3 yards per carry on 42 rush attempts. This has been a common theme for the Tigers over their first three games of the season. Although Auburn’s struggles in the secondary have not yet resulted in any negative outcomes, they remain a concern as the Tigers head into SEC play next weekend against a strong Oklahoma squad.
In this specific game, one possible reason for Auburn’s inconsistency on defense—especially in the second half—was the sheer number of players rotated in on the defensive side of the ball, many of whom were true freshmen. During the postgame interview on Saturday, Freeze made sure to praise the young players for stepping up in order to give key starters time to rest and recover ahead of the game in Norman next Saturday.
“There’s no better teaching than that experience,” said Freeze, when asked about the development of these promising freshmen over the course of the season. While Coach Freeze expressed his satisfaction with the freshmen’s performance, he also mentioned multiple instances in which they were lined up incorrectly on defense.
“Mistakes like those will sting you at times,” said Freeze.
The Tigers were stung quite a few times by big pass plays on Saturday—most notably during the Jaguars’ penultimate drive of the first half and their first drive of the second half. Both of these drives included 10 or more plays, three of which were passes of 20 yards or more. Whether you attribute these plays to inexperience in the defensive secondary or to impressive play-calling by a solid offensive squad, it’s clear the Tigers will need to focus on preventing big plays as they head into the bulk of their schedule.
As Auburn prepares to go on the road against two premier offenses—Oklahoma and Texas A&M—over the next two weeks, the defense will need to be firing on all cylinders.
Although Auburn may have lost the passing and time-of-possession battles in this game, they arguably won the most important battle of all: the turnover battle. Not only were the turnovers crucial in securing Auburn’s third straight win to start the season, but they also came at pivotal moments.
Senior Keyron Crawford recorded an interception on a dropback play late in the first quarter, helping the Tigers regain momentum and setting up back-to-back touchdown drives. Arguably, the most important play of the game came at the start of the fourth quarter: as South Alabama threatened in the red zone, attempting to cut the lead to one score, true freshman Jared Smith forced a fumble while recording Auburn’s only sack of the game.
Even if Auburn’s overall defensive performance was somewhat underwhelming, it’s always a positive sign when the defense delivers big plays in key moments. If the Tigers can continue to win the turnover battle heading into SEC play, they should be able to withstand a few miscues as the defense continues to develop.
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Jonathan is a freshman majoring in industrial and systems engineering. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2025.
