BY BRANDON HUGHES
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Following last week’s loss to Florida, Auburn head coach Alex Golesh wondered aloud how this team would respond to its first loss of the season. Would they respond like winners or losers? The test would come against Vanderbilt (3-1, 0-1), who were on a two-game winning streak against the Tigers and had won four of the last six matchups.
Auburn entered the game as the only SEC team with a losing record to the Commodores (22-23-1). The Tigers had also started conference play 0-4 the previous three seasons. With so much history working against them, Auburn (3-1, 1-1) needed all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — to pull off the 21-15 victory for its first home SEC win since Nov. 23, 2024, in a dramatic 43-41 thriller against then-No. 15 Texas A&M.
The game got off to an inauspicious start as the offense went three-and-out on its first two drives, totaling three yards. The second drive ended with a Byrum Brown interception, giving Vanderbilt the ball at the Auburn 23 yard line. The Tiger defense responded to the early adversity by stiffening and surrendering only a field goal, giving the Commodores an early 3-0 lead.
“The game was funky in a lot of ways,” Golesh said after the game. “It’s hard to put a finger on the offensive start; it really is. I’ve got to figure it out, and we’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got to find ways to get going early, but today was very much a game of response.”
After the early deficit, the Tiger offense responded immediately, needing just 2:04 to go 75 yards and take a 7-3 lead on a 33-yard touchdown pass to Chas Nimrod. Auburn would not trail the rest of the game.
Auburn’s special teams played a pivotal role, doing it all in the second quarter. It began on the first play of the quarter when the Tigers’ punt return unit sniffed out a fake punt.
The defense would force another Vanderbilt punt on the next series; this time, former Auburn High School star Omar Mabson II blocked the kick, and Cade Carlson grabbed the bouncing ball at the 10 yard line and ran it in for Auburn’s first punt-block TD since the 2024 game against Alabama A&M.
It was the first such score in an SEC game since 2020 against Arkansas. It was also the first score by an Auburn Tiger wearing No. 55 since Takeo Spikes had a pick-six against Louisiana Tech on Oct. 11, 1997.
“It was such a surreal moment, being able to score in that stadium,” Carlson said. “You just dream of things like that growing up playing football.”
On Vanderbilt’s final drive of the half, Tiger special teamers came up big one more time as defensive lineman Cody Sigler blocked Brock Taylor’s 48-yard field goal attempt.
Vanderbilt would open the third quarter with its best drive of the day: a 14-play, 75-yard and nearly eight-minute-long drive capped by Sedrick Alexander’s 3-yard TD run and a failed two-point try that made it 14-9. Once again, though, the Auburn offense responded, going 75 yards in eight plays, finishing with a 2-yard TD run by Brown.
The Commodores tacked on two more field goals, trimming the lead to 21-15 with 6:26 to play. Just like last week, Auburn was losing the time of possession battle, and not just by a little bit. After the third quarter, Vanderbilt had held the ball for 31:36 compared to Auburn’s 13:24. This time discrepancy is becoming a disturbing trend as Auburn ranks 135th out of 138 teams nationally in time-of-possession differential.
Whereas the defense ran out of gas against Florida because of the lopsided time of possession, they held strong this week. Commodore quarterback Jared Curtis spent the afternoon under siege — 22 hurries and 30 total pressures on 33 pass attempts.
Xavier Atkins turned in another stellar performance with a season-high eight tackles, three tackles for loss (ranking ninth nationally with 7.0 on the season) and a sack. Yet despite everything, the defense struggled to get off the field at times.
On third down, the defense continued to be stout, allowing just four conversions on 17 third downs, while fourth down was a different story. The Tigers let Vanderbilt move the sticks on four of five attempts. On the season, Auburn ranks 23rd in third down defense, while dropping to 108th in defending fourth down.
Where it mattered most — on the scoreboard — the defense did its job holding a conference opponent to less than seven points in each quarter for just the fourth time since 2009.
Clinging to a six-point lead and 6:26 remaining in the game, the Tigers took over at their own 25. With the game on the line, the offense put together perhaps its best drive of the season. They used 11 plays to burn the rest of the clock, punctuated by Jeremiah Cobb’s game-sealing 21-yard run, allowing Auburn to take the final three snaps in victory formation.
“I saw that I had the corner to beat,” Cobb said. “I was like, I can make this a big play and keep it in bounds. I can seal the game with this run.”
There’s a certain way winners handle a day like this one. The offense wasn’t great — just 279 total yards — but it responded every time Vanderbilt threatened to take control. The defense, coming off its toughest outing of the season, got back to playing like an Auburn defense. And special teams didn’t just show up; it decided the game.
“For us, 1-0, and now we’ve got to be able to reset and go on the road for the very first time this year and go find a way,” Golesh said.
By the Numbers
• Saturday marked the first time Auburn had blocked a punt and a kick in the same game since Alabama State in 2021, and the first time in SEC play since the 2013 Iron Bowl.
• Saturday was Auburn’s first SEC victory with less than 300 yards of total offense since 2022 (Missouri). Hugh Freeze was 0-8 in such games.
• Auburn is one of only five teams with multiple wins against P4 opponents with winning records.
Up next
Away versus Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.
