Texas A&M Football: First Look – Auburn Tigers

First Impressions: Auburn Tigers vs. Texas A&M Football

SEC play finally kicks off this weekend as the Auburn Tigers roll into town. The time for a tune-up is truly over, as the next out-of-conference opponent this Texas A&M football team will face is Abilene Christian on November 18. This Auburn game kicks off a vital 3-game stretch in which the Aggies have a real opportunity to position themselves at the forefront of the SEC West division race.

The Tigers themselves are a team that was hard to project coming into the year. Much like media darling Colorado, there was no shortage of roster turnover with this squad after the arrival of a new head coach. Hugh Freeze has made his triumphant return to the conference, this time at the reins of a much more prestigious program than he was previously running. With any Freeze-coached team, you expect a high-powered offense, but the Tigers have been up and down so far this year. Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne has been the man at the controls for Auburn when it comes to the passing game, and—though the Tigers have looked good against lesser competition in UMass and Samford—the passing game was a struggle against the only Power 5 opponent on their schedule thus far, Cal. Any offense at all was a struggle that late night in Berkeley, to be fair, but it’s too early to tell whether that was because of true ineptitude, road jitters, an extremely late start, or some combination of the above.

Thorne’s main weapons will be WR Shane Hooks, a transfer from Jackson State, and RB Jarquez Hunter, who spent the last two years backing up Tank Bigsby. Hunter was unavailable for the first game of the year after a torrid offseason and fall camp, but has played well in the most recent two games. Rockwall, TX wide receiver product Jay Fair is another player to watch for the Tigers. On defense, Auburn is led by LB Eugene Asante, who played against the Aggies for UNC in the Orange Bowl in 2020. He’s one of the more underrated defensive players in the conference and will doubtless have his name called more than once in this game.

It’s tough to know exactly who this Auburn team is right now. They have two demolishings of less-talented squads sandwiching an absolutely atrocious showing that they somehow ended up winning in week 2. Kyle Field is certainly a more intimidating venue than California Memorial Stadium, but, as I said, it’s hard to know how much of that performance was being on the road and how much was due to the extraordinary amount of travel and unusual start time. As it stands, though, I think this Auburn team can’t test the secondary for Texas A&M football enough to get things done on Saturday. I’ve got the Aggies by a mark of 38-17.