BY BRANDON HUGHES
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Alex Golesh’s Jordan-Hare debut was delayed 55 minutes due to lightning in the area, but once the game started, lightning struck again—this time inside the stadium—on the game’s first play. With pressure in his face, Southern Miss QB Ethan Hampton threw the ball up for grabs, and cornerback Andre Jordan Jr. plucked it out of the air and raced to the endzone for an opening play pick six. It was the fastest score in Auburn history. From there it was barely a contest as Auburn (2-0) throttled Southern Miss (1-1) 43-8.
Despite the final score, it was a sloppy, error-filled game and Golesh took little solace in the margin of victory. “I don’t care what the score is, I don’t. That’s what I just told these guys. A win’s a win, and winning college football games is hard, but if the standard is that, and that’s what it looks like, then we’re gonna have a really, really, really long season.”
When asked about his pick-six to start the game, Jordan Jr. said, “It was definitely crazy because that was my first-ever pick.” The senior UCLA transfer wasn’t done, however. He recorded a second interception later in the same quarter, making him the 19th different Auburn player in the last 30 seasons to pick off two passes in a single game.
From there, it was a track meet that was over before Southern Miss got off the starting blocks. Auburn led 17-0 after one quarter and finished with 613 yards of total offense to Southern Miss’s 221, including a 343-50 edge on the ground. It was the first time since 2021 that Auburn opened the season with back-to-back 300-yard rushing performances.
The Golden Eagles managed 12 first downs all night; Auburn had 31. Tight end Jonathan Echols hauled in Auburn’s first offensive touchdown, a 22-yard strike from Byrum Brown, the first by an Auburn tight end since Rivaldo Fairweather caught one against Vanderbilt in 2024. De’Shawn Spencer added the first touchdown catch of his career in the second quarter, and Omar Mabson II bulldozed his way to a career-high 108 yards—his first 100-yard game—capped by a third-quarter touchdown run of his own.
Brown finished 18-of-29 for 226 yards and two touchdown passes, added 88 yards on the ground, and then, for good measure, caught a touchdown pass himself: a five-yarder from receiver Christian Neptune in the third quarter. It was Brown’s second career touchdown reception and the first by an Auburn quarterback since Kiehl Frazier caught one against ULM in 2012.
After the game, Southern Miss head coach Blake Anderson spoke about the challenges of facing an SEC opponent: “I was very open with the guys all week. We watched the tape; we knew what the roster was built like and knew what the task was at hand. We pretty much knew we had to play near-perfect football to make it a game and make them uncomfortable.”
Southern Miss did not play a perfect game—far from it—but, to their credit, they did mount a push. Down 24-0, the Golden Eagles put together their best drive of the night, a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive right before halftime, capped by Hampton’s one-yard toss to Steven Robinson and a successful two-point conversion. The Tigers answered right back, though.
Starting at their own 29-yard line with 19 seconds to go in the half, Golesh pushed the offense to try and score. It took three plays to get into kicker Alex McPherson’s range, and he drilled a career-long 55-yarder as time expired. It was the fifth-longest FG in Tiger history, and it’s the longest FG for an Auburn kicker since Daniel Carlson hit a 56-yarder against Louisville in 2015. “It felt great,” McPherson said after the game. “I didn’t realize it was my career-long. I just went out and tried to execute.”
The Tiger offense cruised in the second half, while Auburn’s defense, playing without much drama after its early fireworks, got back to work and pitched a second-half shutout. In the midst of it all, defensive lineman Cody Sigler forced the program’s first safety since 2021 late in the third quarter when he pressured Southern Miss into an intentional grounding call in the end zone. In the end, it was an outcome Auburn should expect against a Sun Belt Conference opponent.
Yet it still wasn’t enough for Golesh. In the recent past, Auburn was thrilled just to survive its games, but Saturday they won by 35, and he called the performance unacceptable. Good! That’s not a rebuilding program. That’s a program raising its own bar.
By The Numbers
• Andre Jordan Jr.’s pick-six was Auburn’s fastest defensive score since Kurt Crain recovered a fumble for a touchdown at Vanderbilt with 13:54 left in the first quarter on Oct. 11, 1986.
• Christian Neptune’s TD pass to Byrum Brown was the second of his career. He is 2-for-2 on career passes.
• Auburn last played Southern Miss in 2018, and that game was also delayed by weather (2 hours and 44 minutes). The Tigers won that contest 24-13.
Up next
Home versus Florida at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
