Film Room: How Auburn's first-team offense set the tone for the Bryan Harsin era vs. Akron

The scheme was drastically different. The quarterback had the most accurate game of his career. And the offensive line had a much-needed statement game.

(Todd Van Emst/Auburn Athletics)

In his 25th start as an Auburn quarterback, Bo Nix took 41 snaps. The Tigers put up 457 yards and scored 44 points on a completely overmatched Akron defensive on those plays.

It was a massive night for Nix, who experienced so many highs and lows over his first two seasons for the Tigers and went through an offseason full of speculation that he could lose his starting job in 2021. He threw the ball 22 times on those 41 snaps. Only two of them went for incompletions — a tough throw that had too much air and a high throw that wasn’t handled cleanly by his receiver.

Nix, the quarterback who had a completion percentage of less than 60% in his first two years on the Plains, broke Auburn’s single-game record for passing accuracy Saturday night. He was never pressured, scrambled only once when no one was open downfield and threw all but four of his passes — designed rollouts — inside a well-protected pocket.

Nix’s 275 passing yards stole the show, but Auburn stil…