This Saturday, the No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels will face the Auburn Tigers at home in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Both teams are coming off losses. Ole Miss lost 34-27 to the No. 11 Texas Longhorns. Auburn lost 38-17 to the No. 15 LSU Tigers.
Ole Miss cannot afford another loss if it wants to maintain its College Football Playoff hopes. Prior to Saturday's game, let's dive into everything to know about Auburn.
Getting to Know Auburn's Coach and Roster
Auburn is 4-3 in its first season under head coach Alex Golesh. Golesh came from USF after leading the team to a 9-3 regular season.
Quarterback Byrum Brown followed Golesh from USF to Auburn and has been by far the most important player on offense. Brown has passed for 1,365 yards with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also leads the team in rushing with 479 yards and six touchdowns. He's even caught a touchdown pass.
Brown's leading targets, wide receivers Keshaun Singleton, Chas Nimrod and Jeremiah Koger, also transferred from USF this past offseason. Singleton has 36 catches for 431 yards and two touchdowns this season, Nimrod has 33 catches for 340 yards and three touchdowns and Koger has 14 receptions for 230 yards but no touchdowns.
Those three are the only players on the team with more than 100 receiving yards.
Defensively, the star of the show has been linebacker Elijah Melendez. Melendez leads the team in tackles with 57, sacks with four and pass deflections with six. He also has an interception.
Auburn's On-field Results
Auburn's biggest on-field success this season was its upset victory over the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs. The Tigers also hold victories over Baylor, Southern Miss and Vanderbilt, along with losses to No. 17 Florida, No. 16 Tennessee and No. 15 LSU.
Comparing common opponents with Ole Miss, both Auburn and the Rebels have losses to Florida and wins over Vanderbilt. Florida beat Auburn 44-39 and beat Ole Miss the next week, 52-28. Auburn beat Vanderbilt 21-15 and Ole Miss beat the Commodores 52-17. Ole Miss defeated LSU 32-24, while Auburn lost to LSU last week, 38-17.
It remains to be seen if the Rebels can replicate Auburn's success over Georgia when the Bulldogs visit Oxford on Nov. 7.
Auburn already having three losses, all in conference play, means they don't have much to play for when it comes to conference championship or College Football Playoff contention. The Tigers are looking to build momentum for Golesh's second year as the coach.
Ole Miss, however, has much to play for as its College Football Playoff hopes are still alive despite taking a hit against Texas. Though if they want to make the 12-team field, they'll likely have to win out, starting this Saturday against Auburn.
Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news.
Add us as a preferred source on Google