BY BRANDON HUGHES
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN— In the heart of horse country Saturday night in Lexington, it was Auburn University’s Jarquez Hunter who thundered down the field like a prized thoroughbred, leaving defenders in his dust as he powered the Tigers (3-5, 1-4 SEC) to a decisive 24-10 victory over Kentucky (3-5, 1-5 SEC), marking Auburn’s 10th consecutive road win against the Wildcats.
With a career-high 278 rushing yards, Hunter set a relentless pace as he averaged a blistering 12.1 yards per carry, turning Kroger Field into his own personal Keeneland racetrack. In a performance that combined finesse and force, the senior running back put a struggling Tiger offense on his back and took advantage of a road-grading performance by the offensive line en route to the highest individual rushing total in college football this season and the fourth-best individual rushing total in Auburn history.
Kentucky’s defense entered the contest giving up only 104 yards on the ground per game, but Auburn ran for 326 and averaged over 9 yards per carry as a team. The Wildcat defense had not allowed a 40-yard rush all season — Hunter had three runs of over 40 yards in the second half.
Hunter’s rushing yards were the most by an Auburn player since Tre Mason ran for 304 yards against Missouri in the 2013 SEC Championship Game. It was also the first 200-yard rushing game by a Tiger since Kerryon Johnson ran for 204 yards against Ole Miss in 2017.
On a night when he surpassed the 3,000-yard mark for his career, becoming only the sixth Auburn Tiger ever to do so, Hunter spoke about his mentality entering the game: “To be honest, I got tired of losing. I’m tired of losing. I told Coach, ‘We’re going to find a way to win this game, and it doesn’t matter how we do it or how it gets done.’ I just tried to play my hardest for my teammates and coaches and give it my all every play.”
“It felt like I was watching myself play a video game,” said Auburn defensive back Kayin Lee about Hunter’s performance.
Tiger offensive lineman Jeremiah Wright said about the success in the running game: “We told Coach, starting last week, ‘Coach, let’s run the ball more. Let’s give No. 27 that rock more and pound the rock.’ We’ve been focusing on it all week… We took the fight to them.”
The game could not have started worse for Auburn as they found themselves in a 10-0 hole just over six minutes into the game. The Tigers held Kentucky to a field goal on its opening drive, then gave the ball right back after a three-and-out on offense and punted from its own end zone. Kentucky wasted little time taking advantage of the good field position, punching it in from 2 yards out for the early 10-0 lead.
On Auburn’s second drive of the game, Payton Thorne threw his seventh interception of the season on the drive’s second play. When asked about the interception after the game, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said, “The route should have been shaved back to the ball better… I know it always shows up on the quarterbacks and everything, and sometimes it is them, but I thought that route could have been run differently.”
With everything going against them, not just in the game but for the season, it would have been easy to pack it in. However, the opposite happened. That turnover wound up being the turning point for the game.
Aided by Keldrick Faulk’s sixth sack of the season, the Wildcats lost nine yards on the drive and were forced to punt. Not only would the Tiger defense hold Kentucky scoreless the rest of the game, but Thorne, who completed just one pass on three attempts for zero yards and an interception up to that point, would go on to complete 19 of his final 23 attempts. For the second, third and fourth quarters, Thorne went 14-15 for 126 yards. As for Hunter, he finished the first quarter with one carry for zero yards.
Auburn began its ground assault against Kentucky on its first drive of the second quarter as the offense ran the ball four times on the five-play drive that ended with KeAndre Lambert-Smith’s seventh touchdown catch of the season, bringing him within striking distance of the Auburn single-season touchdown receiving record of 12 set by Terry Beasley in 1971.
The Tiger defense forced a punt on Kentucky’s next drive and evened the score at 10-10 on Alex McPherson’s first field goal try of the season. The game would stay knotted at 10 headed to halftime when Thorne took a sack at the Kentucky 21-yard line with no timeouts remaining, allowing the clock to run out before Auburn could line up for a field goal try.
The Tigers opened the second half with eight consecutive run plays, setting the tone for what was to come. Hunter bulldozed his way into the endzone from one yard out, completing a 14-play (11 runs and 3 passes), 75-yard drive to give Auburn its first lead of the game. The defense was relentless, allowing Kentucky only six yards of offense in the third quarter.
Hunter has only had 20 carries in a game once in his career (vs. New Mexico this season), and it was on his 20th carry of this game that he put an exclamation point on his performance. With 12:18 to go in the game, Hunter took the handoff and burst untouched through the right side of the line for a 45-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 24-10 lead.
Kentucky made one final push as it drove the field and set up first and goal at the Auburn 3-yard line with 6:43 to go in the game, but the Tiger defense stiffened and ended the threat when Lee picked off a Wildcat pass at the 1-yard line on 4th down.
By the Numbers:
- In the 4th quarter, Auburn attempted just one pass while running the ball 15 times for 143 yards.
- The Kentucky offense opened the game gaining 110 yards versus zero for the Auburn offense. Auburn outgained the Wildcats 498-114 the rest of the way.
- Auburn is one of only eight teams in the country averaging at least 6.5 yards per play on offense and allowing 5 yards per play or less on defense. Auburn’s record is 3-5, while the other seven teams are a combined 50-3.
Up Next: Home versus Vanderbilt at 11:45 a.m. on the SEC Network
