BY BRANDON HUGHES
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Auburn survived Baylor by a point on a defensive stand at the goal line, then blew out an overmatched Southern Miss squad. Saturday night, in the SEC opener, there were no late-game heroics, and Florida had plenty of talent on their side of the line of scrimmage. The Gators (3-0, 1-0) held on for a 44-39 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium, building a comfortable second-half lead before the Tigers (2-1, 0-1) clawed its way back, only to run out of time. After the game, Auburn head coach Alex Golesh did not try to sugarcoat it. “I can give you some coach talk about fighting and all that,” Golesh said. “The expectation…is to win that game here, and we didn’t…I understand the assignment…The coaching side, it wasn’t good enough by me. I think in every imaginable way, we lost our composure in the first quarter.”
The Tigers’ problems began early: three plays into the game, to be exact, when Byrum Brown threw an interception, setting Florida up on the Tigers’ 41 yard line. The Gators wasted little time capitalizing with a three-play drive of their own as Jadan Baugh, who recoreded 162 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries, found the end zone on a 2-yard run.
The Auburn defense would force a first quarter pick of its own when Da’Shawn Womack corralled a tipped Aaron Philo pass, putting the Tiger offense in business at the Gator 8 yard line. Despite starting on the doorstep of the endzone, the offense promptly lost yards on their next three plays before settling for Alex McPherson’s 40-yard field goal.
With the deficit cut to 7-3 and the crowd back in the game, Florida put together a 16-play, 75-yard scoring drive, eating up more than eight minutes on the clock. The Tiger defense had the Gator offense behind the chains multiple times on that drive, including on third-and-12, third-and-21 and third-and-goal from the 20 yard line, but could not force a stop. In the first of many gut punches the defense would face throughout the night, Florida called a conservative run play on the third-and-goal from the 20, trying only to make a shorter field goal opportunity, but the Tiger defense had other plans as they allowed Duke Clark to run for the Gator TD.
Explosive plays — defined as a run of 10 or more yards and a completion of 15 or more yards — became a theme, with Florida compiling 13 of them (seven passing and six rushing), aided in no small part by 24 missed tackles. Florida opened the second half with a slim 20-17 lead, but on the first play of the half, the Gators set the tone of what was to come by connecting on a 37-yard pass play. They covered 75 yards in just three plays as Baugh broke off a 33-yard sprint to paydirt and extended the lead to 10.
“The explosives we gave up. I don’t know how many there were, but it felt like they came at inopportune times,” Golesh said.
What makes it sting more: Florida was flagged 16 times for 138 yards, more than double Auburn’s six for 65.
“We’ve got to take advantage of the penalty discrepancy. We didn’t,” Golesh admitted.
It wasn’t for lack of individual effort on defense. Elijah Melendez set career highs with 11 tackles and three tackles for loss, and Xavier Atkins posted a season-best nine tackles to go with his second sack of the year. Auburn’s defense simply spent too many snaps on the field behind an offense that took too long to get going. In the first quarter alone, Florida controlled the ball for 11:46 before finishing the game with a hefty 18-minute edge in time of possession. As the game wore on, the math eventually caught up with the defense, and it failed to get stops when it needed to.
Auburn’s offense, meanwhile, showed once again that it’s at its best when Brown gets out of the pocket and makes plays. In the first quarter, Brown had no positive run plays and zero completions on four attempts, threw an interception and was sacked twice as Auburn managed just three points. In the second quarter, Brown ran for 21 yards and threw for 110 yards and a touchdown as the Tigers put up 14 points. In the second half, Brown ran for 79 yards (not accounting for sacks) and a TD and threw for 161 yards and two TDs, putting up 22 points.
Brown was sacked seven times in the game — and a nation-leading 13 times on the year — and even though not all of those were on the offensive line, Cole Best took responsibility: “We live and die on the idea that this program, every program, will go as the offensive line goes. And if we’re not airtight up front, then you don’t stand a chance. So as a leader of this group, it’s 100% on me.”
Until Saturday, Golesh has talked about standards and shortcomings and getting things cleaned up in the wake of victories. Now, those issues are glaring after his first loss as the Tigers’ head coach. Now he gets to see how his team responds to a setback. “This is really the first bit of adversity—real adversity—that we’ve had to face as a team…There’s a certain way winners handle it. There’s a certain way losers handle it,” Golesh said. “We’ve got to go handle it the right way.”
By the Numbers:
- Other than during World War II (1941, 1943 and 1944), Auburn and Florida played every year from 1927-2002. This was just the fifth meeting in the last 24 years.
- The 39 points are the most Auburn has scored in regulation against a P4 team since they put up 48 on the road versus Arkansas on Nov. 11, 2023. It is the most points scored at home versus a P4 team since they scored 48 against LSU on Oct. 11, 2020.
- The defense allowed 44 points, the most Auburn has allowed in regulation inside Jordan-Hare Stadium since Mississippi State scored 43 points on Nov. 13, 2021.
Up Next:
Home versus Vanderbilt at 3:15 p.m. on the SEC Network.
