{"id":54651,"date":"2023-11-12T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-12T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=54651"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:01:51","slug":"auburn-tigers-becomes-bowl-eligible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/11\/12\/auburn-tigers-becomes-bowl-eligible\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburn Tigers Become Bowl Eligible"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday in Fayetteville, it was a game between two teams still playing for the bowl season. The road team, the Auburn Tigers, came in at 5-4 and one win away from bowl eligibility. For the Arkansas Razorbacks, they needed to win out to make it to the postseason. The Auburn Tigers become bowl-eligible with a rout of the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Tigers started fast with a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and had their best offensive performance of the season. Auburn put up 517 total yards with 354 on the ground. Quarterback Payton Thorne<\/a> led the way with 163 yards passing and 88 rushing. He had a total of four touchdowns as well. Running back Jarquez Hunter<\/a> had another good game with 109 yards.<\/p>\n

The defense controlled the game most of the way. Arkansas quarterback K.J. Jefferson<\/a> was met with constant pressure, and the Razorbacks could never find their rush attack. They were held to 255 total yards on day. Jalen Mcleod<\/a> led the Tigers with nine total tackles and three sacks. The team had five overall sacks on Saturday. The Auburn Tigers become bowl-eligible<\/a> with the sixth win but they will look for win number seven next week against New Mexico State at home.<\/p>\n

Auburn Tigers Become Bowl Eligible<\/h3>\n

Auburn Starts Fast<\/h3>\n

The Tigers got off to a fast start with a Thorne touchdown off a zone read play. After faking a handoff to Hunter, Thorne took it in for a 12-yard touchdown run to go up 7-0 with 12:37 in the first quarter. On the second play of the drive, Thorne connected with receiver Caleb Burton<\/strong> for 45 yards off an RPO. The quarterback had three carries for 28 yards on the possession.<\/p>\n

The Tigers forced a punt on the first Razorbacks drive, and they found the endzone again. Keionte Scott<\/a> took a 48-yard punt by Max Fletcher<\/strong> 74 yards for a touchdown to put the Tigers up 14-0 with 10:44 in the quarter. That is the longest play of the season for Auburn. The Tigers were not done in the first quarter forcing another three and out.<\/p>\n

After another punt by Fletcher, the Tigers got the ball at their own 44-yard line. This drive featured more runs from Hunter, but again a big play passing got Auburn in scoring position. On first and ten at the Arkansas 45, Thorne found Ja\u2019Varrius Johnson<\/strong> on a quick pass for a 27-yard gain. That play put the Tigers at the 18. Three plays later Thorne found tight end Rivaldo Fairweather<\/strong> for an 11-yard touchdown. With 6:28 remaining in the quarter Auburn was up 21-0.<\/p>\n

Auburn forced another quick punt by the Razorbacks and looked to add another score in the opening quarter. Then Arkansas got the big play they needed when Thorne made a bad decision. At their own 41, the quarterback was intercepted by Dwight McGlothern<\/strong> and he returned it to the Auburn 22. The Tigers’ defense stepped up and held Arkansas to a Cam Little field goal of 39 yards. The Auburn defensive front started this game getting constant pressure on Jefferson and did so to cover up the Thorne mistake.<\/p>\n

Defense Holds Serve<\/h3>\n

The Auburn offense slowed down in the second quarter with punts by Oscar Chapman<\/strong> on their first two possessions. The Auburn defense, however, continued to silence the Razorbacks offense. Arkansas did threaten and made it to the Auburn 46 with 9:08 in the quarter. The Tigers’ defense prevented any more advancement and forced another punt.<\/p>\n

Auburn started the next drive at its own five and went on a 13-play, 73-yard drive that took up 5:40 off the clock. The drive did not result in a touchdown but an Alex McPherson field goal of 39 yards. The drive stalled at the Arkansas 17 when Thorne was sacked by Trajan Jeffcoat<\/strong> for a loss of five yards. Auburn went heavy on the run with Hunter gaining 24 yards and Thone getting 28 yards on the ground.<\/p>\n

The score of 24-3 looked to be the score going until halftime, but the Tigers’ defense had other ideas. On a third and 17, Jefferson was hit by McLeod to force a fumble that was recovered by Marcus Harris<\/strong>. That turnover put the Tigers at the 24 with 21 seconds until halftime. An 11-yard run by Hunter put them at the 13-yard line, and McPherson put up another three points with a 31-yard field goal to up 27-3 at halftime. That was the 17th<\/sup> consecutive made field goal by McPherson with his only career miss coming last season in his very first kick.<\/p>\n

The Rout is On<\/h3>\n

Auburn started the second half by making the score 34-3. At the 9:26 mark, Thorne found a wide-open Johnson for a 14-yard touchdown. The two connected three times on the drive, and Hunter had two big runs for a combined 29 yards on the drive. Arkansas got the biggest play of the game on the following possession. On first and 10 at their own 48, Jefferson completed a 35-yard pass to Isaiah Sategna<\/strong> to get to the Tigers 17. On the following play, Raheim Sanders<\/strong> fumbled after being hit by Zion Puckett<\/strong>. Caleb Wooden<\/a> picked up the fumble and returned it to the Arkansas 11 for 74 yards. Thorne connected with Fairweather for his second touchdown with 7:06 in the third to go up 41-3.<\/p>\n

Auburn got the ball back after an Arkansas punt and added more points. They leaned heavily on their three running backs with Hunter, Brian Battie<\/strong>, and Damari Alston<\/strong> getting the carries. The trio combined for 65 yards and Battie got a seven-yard touchdown to go up 48-3 with 14 seconds left in the quarter.<\/p>\n

Garbage Time<\/h3>\n

The Razorbacks finally made it to the endzone in the final quarter. A 60-yard run by Jacolby Criswell<\/strong> got Arkansas to the Auburn 11, Criswell then would find Isaac Teslaa<\/strong> for an 11-yard touchdown to make it 48-10 with 14:35 remaining. Auburn would then get some playing time for some of the backups including quarterback Robby Ashford<\/strong>. He did not lead the team to any points but did have an interception with the Tigers moving the ball. The final score would read 48-10 and the Auburn Tigers become bowl eligible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Auburn
Photo courtesy: Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday in Fayetteville, it was a game between two teams still playing for the bowl season. The road team, the Auburn Tigers, came in at 5-4 and one win away from bowl eligibility. For the Arkansas Razorbacks, they needed to win out to make it to the postseason. The Auburn Tigers become bowl-eligible with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2751,"featured_media":54674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[3,35588,35583],"tags":[314,162,8814,8050,10606,9903,20,32664],"class_list":["post-54651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-arkansas-razorbacks","category-auburn-tigers","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-brian-battie","tag-javarrius-johnson","tag-marcus-harris","tag-rivaldo-fairweather","tag-sec","tag-zion-puckett"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54651","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=54651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78137,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54651\/revisions\/78137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}