BY BRANDON HUGHES
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — For 30 minutes Saturday, Auburn (5-4, 3-4) played its worst offense of the season, and maybe of the last several. Then came the second half. The Tigers’ 26-23 win over Arkansas (3-6, 1-5) at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Nov. 7 was a tale of two halves in the most Dickensian sense: the worst of times, followed by the best of them.
“For six drives, [the offense] was as bad as you could imagine,” Auburn head coach Alex Golesh said afterward. “And then the last six, we looked like an offense and looked efficient.”
Golesh wasn’t exaggerating. Auburn’s first six possessions produced 37 total yards, three first downs, five punts and a turnover on downs on 26 plays. In a bleak first quarter, Auburn tallied 14 plays, 15 yards, and one first down, which came on a fourth down conversion. Auburn went 1-for-9 on third down before halftime, and two holding penalties wiped out two of its better runs. Byrum Brown carried six times for minus-3 yards. When AnQuon Fegans intercepted K.J. Jackson midway through the second quarter — his third pick in four games — the offense answered with three plays, eight yards and a punt.
That the Tigers trailed only 10-3 at the break was a credit to the defense. It wasn’t until its final drive of the half that the offense showed a pulse, putting together a nine-play, 57-yard drive culminating in Alex McPherson’s 33-yard field goal with three seconds left.
Then a different Auburn offense showed up. An offense that looked like the one Golesh was hired to build. Over its final six possessions, Auburn put up 321 yards and 26 points on 50 plays. That’s 6.4 yards per snap after managing 1.4 on the first six drives. Brown, the quarterback with negative yardage at halftime, ran for 125 yards on 17 second-half carries. Of his 302 total yards, 214 came after the break, along with all three of his touchdowns.
“That is the Byrum Brown that I know,” center Cole Best said. “Anytime he gets to go and just run and cut it loose, it’s fun to watch.”
The Tigers put together three straight scoring drives: the field goal before halftime and TDs on their first two possessions of the second half. Thirty-three plays, 199 yards and 16 points later, Auburn led in a game for the first time since beating Georgia. After Arkansas tied it at 16-16 and the teams traded punts, Brown broke a 39-yard run on the drive’s first play. Three plays later, he found Keshaun Singleton for a 28-yard TD on 3rd-and-12 with 3:56 remaining.
And then, because nothing at Auburn is ever simple, a defense that had carried the team all day surrendered 75 yards in five plays and two minutes, the tying score coming on a 23-yard TD pass. So the Tigers did it again. Brown carried six times on the final drive, Singleton added a 21-yard catch and McPherson’s 43-yarder slipped just inside the right upright with 33 seconds left for the game-winning score.
The story of the day belonged to true freshman linebacker Shadarius Toodle, who was on the practice squad three weeks ago. In his first collegiate game, he made 11 tackles with 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks — the most sacks ever in a game by an Auburn linebacker, by an Auburn true freshman and by any Tiger in his debut. He’s only the seventh freshman in the SEC since at least 1996 with three or more sacks in a game, and none had done it in his first game. Toodle’s 4.5 tackles for loss were the most by a Tiger since Quentin Groves in 2004 and the most by an Auburn linebacker since Haven Fields in 1999.
“Maybe waited too long to play him,” Golesh conceded, “but sometimes that’s how it shakes.”
On his overall experience, Toodle said, “It was truly amazing. I was blessed to be out on the field, blessed for the coaches to believe in me.” On his time with the practice squad: “Just come down, put my head down, and keep working… earning trust from the coaches.”
As a unit, the defense piled up 12 tackles for loss and six sacks, the most since the 2021 Iron Bowl, and held Arkansas to minus-12 rushing yards in the fourth quarter. The Razorbacks’ 172 rushing yards are a bit misleading: 111 came on two carries, Sutton Smith’s 65-yarder and Cam Settles’ 46-yarder. The other 42 carries netted 61 yards.
Book one of “A Tale of Two Cities” is titled “Recalled to Life,” and fits the Tigers’ performance on Saturday. Auburn was a 4-4 team coming off two blowouts and looking lifeless at halftime before taking over. After the game, Golesh spoke of his message to the team. “The only word last night was finish. The only word this morning was finish. The only word at halftime was finish. Play the play, finish drives and certainly finish the game.”
But he wasn’t selling Saturday as anything more than it was. “I ain’t gonna act like it’s a perfect euphoria in there,” he said. “Because it isn’t.”
No, but Auburn finished. And that’s a start.
By the numbers:
This is the first season since 2020 that the Tigers won’t have a four-game regular-season losing streak.
For the first time since 2013, Auburn has won two SEC games after trailing by 10 or more.
Auburn is 4-1 in one-score games under Alex Golesh. Bryan Harsin was 3-5, and Hugh Freeze was 2-10.
Up next:
Away versus Mississippi State on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.
