Observations: Auburn 59, UMass 14
The Tigers know what they have to work on after their Week 1 blowout win. And that's exactly what you want from a new-look team.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Athletics)
What do you say about a team that had more new starters than returning ones and still covered the point spread with ease?
What do you say about an offense that nearly rushed for 300 yards and passed for over 200 yards? An offense in which the top touchdown-getter was the backup quarterback? An offense that constantly rotated linemen? An offense that had six different players run for 30-plus yards and had four receivers with multiple catches?
How about a defense that had 20 players record a tackle, with five of them getting at least half a sack? A defense that forced two takeaways after barely getting many last season — and also scoring directly on one of them? A defense that gave up an 89-yard touchdown drive on the opening possession and didn’t get scored on again until the fourth quarter?
Robby Ashford knows what to say about it.
“I look at it as just, man… we got athletes,” Ashford said with a big grin. “We got guys.”
Auburn’s final participation report from its 59-14 win over UMass on Saturday had nearly 60 names on it. And a handful of expected key players were absent, including running back Jarquez Hunter and cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett.
The overhauled roster engineered by new head coach Hugh Freeze and his staff this offseason got to showcase its depth Saturday.
There were issues, and they weren’t surprising ones.
Auburn didn’t get much of its new-look passing game with Payton Thorne clicking, and UMass averaged 6.8 sack-adjusted yards per carry against a defense that carried over major concerns from a rough 2022 season. This roster and program are works-in-progress, which prompted Freeze to temper expectations ahead of his debut.
But Freeze was still all smiles after the clock hit all zeroes Saturday. Auburn was in complete command of this game from the second quarter on, scoring 52 unanswered points and getting to rotate a ton of players into the action.
“Whether it’s guys you’re going to depend on later that need the reps or if it’s guys that will have that memory for the rest of their life, it matters,” Freeze said. “They both matter.”
Auburn has plenty of work to do and room to grow, even after one of the highest-scoring openers in program history. The road trip to Cal next week won’t be easy, especially after the Golden Bears smashed North Texas by 37 on the road Saturday.
Still, Auburn can celebrate that it took care of business against a sizable underdog in Week 1 — something that not every power-conference team in its shoes could say. The largest attendance and the largest student section in Jordan-Hare Stadium helped that revamped roster set the tone for a new era.
Even against a team like UMass, that matters.
“How much can we take away from it?” Freeze said. “We're 1-0 — that's what you can take from it. We'll watch the film and learn.”
Here’s what we learned about the 2023 Tigers in their debut Saturday afternoon, along with plenty of Nerd Stats and the Quotes of the Day.
Auburn wasted no time showing off Robby Ashford’s new role…
Ashford was an injury concern heading into game week, as Freeze mentioned he was dealing with an oblique issue. It was unclear just how much the Tigers would use their starter-turned-backup Saturday, even though the head coach had talked him up for so long.
Well, Ashford was healthy enough to have 15 countable plays Saturday: nine carries and six passing attempts. His first snap of the game came just outside the red zone late in the first quarter, after a UMass injury timeout. He broke off an 8-yard run and fired off a quick screen pass to Jay Fair that would’ve put the Tigers on the doorstep of scoring if not for a holding call on Rivaldo Fairweather.
The next time Auburn got into the red zone, Ashford scored a rushing touchdown from 10 yards out. On the next drive, he checked into the game and ran the ball on three straight plays, punching in another touchdown from a yard out. And on the next drive, he came in after a timeout to score again on third-and-goal from the 4.
In just a quarter of work, Ashford became the first Auburn quarterback to run for three touchdowns in a game since Nick Marshall against South Carolina in 2014. And, again, he’s No. 2 on the depth chart.
“Every press conference I have been in, I have said, ‘Robby Ashford is vital to us winning football games,’” Freeze said. “I don’t know how else to say it. He is vital to us winning football games. I don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like from week to week, but he’s vital to us winning football games, and we need him.”