{"id":16496,"date":"2018-09-10T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosoncfb.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=16496"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:03:06","slug":"auburn-freshmen-lead-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2018\/09\/10\/auburn-freshmen-lead-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburn Freshmen Lead the Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday night, the Alabama State Hornets\u00a0<\/strong>were no match for the Auburn Tigers<\/strong>. In the first meeting between the two schools, Auburn defeated the Hornets 63-9 in a game that saw action from many Tigers. The Auburn Freshmen lead the way by totaling 457 of the 568 yards.<\/p>\n

Tigers Start Slowly<\/h3>\n

Unlike in the previous game, Auburn got off to a bit of a slow start against the Hornets. In Auburn\u2019s first possession they went three and out. That was followed by a\u00a0JaTarvious Whitlow<\/a><\/strong> fumble while driving into Alabama State territory with 12:29 left in the first quarter. The first play after the fumble Alabama State quarterback\u00a0Darryl Pearson Jr.<\/a><\/strong> hit receiver\u00a0Dieuly Aristilde Jr.<\/a><\/strong> for a 51-yard play to set up the Hornets at the Auburn 30. Alabama State was not able to advance the ball for a first down. They settled for a 43-yard field goal attempt that was missed by kicker Hunter Hanson<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Auburn Freshmen Lead The Way<\/h3>\n

When the offense did get going, it was the running game that led the way. This was a concern in the previous game against Washington<\/strong>. Auburn had a total of 147 yards and a 3.3 yards per carry average against the Huskies. In that game, they were led by\u00a0Kam Martin<\/a><\/strong> with 80 yards. In game two, it was a completely different story.<\/p>\n

Auburn rushed for a total of 429 yards with an average carry of 7.3 yards. Now, this is against what would be lesser competition from a talent standpoint. With that said, the improvement is nothing but positive. Freshmen Whitlow and\u00a0Shaun Shivers<\/a><\/strong> led the way with a combined 239 yards.<\/p>\n

One freshman that Auburn fans have been excited to see on the field is speedy receiver, Anthony Schwartz<\/a><\/strong>. Schwartz was a silver medalist at the U20 World Championships<\/strong> in the 100 Meters over the summer, and he without a doubt showed off that speed on Saturday. Schwartz combined for a total of 117 yards with one touchdown rushing and receiving.<\/p>\n

Short Night For Stidham<\/h3>\n

It would turn out to be a very short night for Jarrett Stidham<\/a><\/strong>. Stidham was pulled from the game around 5:00 left in the second quarter and\u00a0Malik Miller<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0entered the game. Stidham went six for eleven with 113 yards with one passing touchdown. The highlight was a 57-yard touchdown pass to Schwartz that would put Auburn up 14-0 late in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Miller and newcomer\u00a0Cord Sandberg<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0received playing time in relief for Stidham. Both only went for a combined two of three with 25 yards, but Sandberg contributed to the ground game when he entered. Sandberg had 35 yards on 3 carries.\u00a0Joey Gatewood<\/a><\/strong> did not see action due to an thumb injury.<\/p>\n

Defense and Special Teams Making Plays<\/h3>\n

Auburn has been trying to find ways to get\u00a0Devan Barrett<\/a><\/strong> involved with the offense in many ways. On Saturday night, he got himself involved in a big way. With 7:42 left in the second quarter\u00a0Jordyn Peters<\/a><\/strong> broke through to block an\u00a0Anthony Craven<\/a><\/strong> punt. Barrett was there to scoop it up for his first touchdown as an Auburn Tiger.<\/p>\n

Anders Carlson<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was a perfect six of six on extra points. It was also a perfect performance by senior kicker\u00a0Ian Shannon<\/a><\/strong> going three for three.<\/p>\n

The big star for Auburn on the defensive side was safety\u00a0Daniel Thomas<\/a><\/strong> with two interceptions. It was the first time a Tiger had multiple interceptions in one game since Thomas did so against Alabama<\/strong> in 2016. When Auburn went up 14-0 after the Schwartz touchdown, Thomas added to the score when he intercepted Pearson for a 29-yard touchdown return. The second interception for Thomas came with 7:35 in the second to set Auburn up inside the 30. That led another Schwartz touchdown to put the Tigers up 42-0.\u00a0Jamien Sherwood<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0chipped in with an interception late in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Negatives?<\/h3>\n

On a night when most things went Auburn’s way, turnovers were the one negative from the performance. Auburn lost four fumbles on the night, and three from the running backs. Also, Auburn gave up a safety late in the first half when Willis was sacked in the end zone.<\/p>\n

What’s Next?<\/h3>\n

Next week Auburn stays home for a big SEC matchup with LSU. LSU comes into the contest 2-0, and it should be a clash of top ten teams.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday night, the Alabama State Hornets\u00a0were no match for the Auburn Tigers. In the first meeting between the two schools, Auburn defeated the Hornets 63-9 in a game that saw action from many Tigers. The Auburn Freshmen lead the way by totaling 457 of the 568 yards. Tigers Start Slowly Unlike in the previous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2751,"featured_media":16526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35583,3],"tags":[162,3628,1819,3626,20,3627],"class_list":["post-16496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-auburn-tigers","category-sec","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-gus-malzhan","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-jatarvious-whitlow","tag-sec","tag-shaun-shivers"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78320,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16496\/revisions\/78320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}