Auburn Remains Unranked in AP Poll

This past Friday, the Tigers dismantled the Baylor Bears, who were also unranked, 38-24. The Tigers were able to run the ball seemingly with ease, racking up a total of 307 rushing yards. 

Quarterback Jackson Arnold led the way for Auburn, racking up 137 rushing yards and two scores. He is also currently the leading rusher for the SEC. Everyone was expecting Auburn to play all three quarterbacks, Arnold, Ashton Daniels and Deuce Knight, due to Hugh Freeze stating that all three could see playing time during a weekly radio talk show. 

However, Arnold came out and proved why he is the starter despite Auburn relying heavily on the run.

The Auburn pass defense however, gave up a huge number of passing yards. Giving up 419 passing yards and 483 yards of total offense, not exactly where you want to be if you want to win football games. Auburn also struggled with tackling, allowing many yards after catch and after contact. But that was really only the case in the passing game. 

The Auburn run defense, if you take away the first drive, looked outstanding, giving up only 64 rushing yards throughout the entire contest. 38 of those rushing yards came on the first Baylor offensive drive alone.

Now just outside of the top 25, Auburn could easily see itself ranked entering SEC play should it handle the next two matchups against Ball State and South Alabama. Auburn was last ranked in 2021.

The SEC currently has ten teams ranked in the AP Poll. Those teams are LSU (3), Georgia (4), Texas (7), South Carolina (10), Florida (13), Oklahoma (18), Texas A&M (19), Ole Miss (20), Alabama (21) and Tennessee (22). Auburn faces Oklahoma and Texas A&M on the road later this month and has dates with Georgia and Alabama at home under the lights of Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Although they fell short on this week's rankings, there will be plenty of opportunities for the Tigers to have a ranking attached to their name later in the season.

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