Why did Auburn run the ball so well at UK... and can it continue?
The Tigers' massive success on the ground wasn't rocket science, so maybe they can keep it up against noted academic power Vanderbilt.
RB Jarquez Hunter (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — Several aspects of Auburn’s dominant rushing performance in its 24-10 road win at Kentucky last Saturday night were surprising.
Kentucky hadn’t been gashed like that on the ground in years. Two weeks ago, the Wildcats boasted one of the best run defenses in the SEC and the whole country.
Auburn ran for 359 yards on 45 true carries, which is an average of 8 per tote. Jarquez Hunter handed Kentucky its first, second and third 40-yard carry allowed in 2024 — all coming in the greatest second-half rushing performance in Auburn history.
(Hunter, who became the first SEC Offensive Player of the Week for Auburn since Bo Nix in the 2021 road win at LSU, ran for more yards than any FBS player has in a single game this season.)
It was also surprising that Auburn actually stuck to the ground game. After weeks of saying that the Tigers needed to give Hunter more touches and feeling like they had thrown the ball a little too much in key spots, Hugh Freeze and his staff pivoted.
“That four-minute (offense) drive was maybe the best I've seen of my career, to eat the entire clock up,” Freeze said Monday. “And there were a lot of (Kentucky) people in the box, too, now. I was so tempted to throw it. I was so tempted. On the (headset), I kept calling: ‘No throw, no throw, no throw. Just hand it off.’”
Freeze successfully resisted the Green Goblin mask of throwing the ball and kept feeding his running backs. He did it with a newer offensive line arrangement, with redshirt freshman Bradyn Joiner getting his first career start at left guard and Dillon Wade making the move to left tackle in place of the struggling Percy Lewis.
Somehow, it was this offense in this season with that offensive line against that defense that saw Auburn put together one of the best rushing performances in school history.
And it wasn’t rocket science.
“The plan was really good, and our kids executed it,” Freeze said. “We’ve got really good running backs. But our O-line really played one of their better games. We showed a few different things, but when it came down to it, truthfully, it wasn’t like it was extremely fancy runs.
“It was mostly inside zones that we just blocked up really well. Then our guys made the first guy miss and created some explosive runs. But it starts upfront.”
Case in point: On Hunter’s 45-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, Kentucky had seven defenders in the box compared to just six available blockers for Auburn. On inside zone, the key is to take out the inside linebackers — but it can’t come at the expense of failing to secure the edges or the linemen on the interior.
Auburn could have been tempted to throw the ball on this third-and-short situation, given the 1-on-1 matchups on the outside. But it stuck with the ground game, and it paid off.
Luke Deal helped block on the perimeter. The right side of the line — which included SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week Izavion Miller — walled off its matchups. Center Connor Lew took care of the lineman in front of him and a blitzing linebacker. And the duo of Wade and Joiner on the left side combined to create a huge hole for Hunter.
Later in the fourth quarter, when Hunter popped another huge run to cross the 3,000-yard mark for his career, the call was a simple outside zone.
This time, Auburn tried to spread Kentucky out with three players out to the left and one to the right. That created a 7-on-5 situation in the box. Auburn still ran it, still blocked it well and still got a massive gain.
“No one had really gashed them in the run game,” Freeze said. “I always go in thinking we have a good plan, and we've got to be balanced and run it, but I did want to start the game trying to throw the football on them. That didn't work out so well. … The first quarter flew by, but I think I told the (sideline reporter) that we've got to, right now, establish the run if we're going to be in this game.
“And then, we started to find out, man, our guys are handling them up front pretty good, and we're running it.”
Auburn’s offensive line had not been a “run it, no matter what” type of unit through the first seven games of the season. For example, a week earlier at Missouri, Auburn ran the ball more than usual but saw its efficiency decrease to 3.14 yards per carry.
If the Tigers stick to a revamped starting lineup and a renewed commitment to establish the run, though?
Here’s more on that, along with the rest of what we learned from Freeze, as Auburn turns the page from that Kentucky win and gets ready for a visit from a dangerous Vanderbilt team.