The Auburn Tigers are on the road, taking on the Missouri Tigers in a Week 8 college football matchup. In the battle of the Tigers, the Auburn version owns the current win streak – winning the last three matchups Missouri won the only other game they played which was back in 1973.
Auburn is coming off a bye week and will hopefully be more prepared to face an opponent that had greater offensive expectations on the year. Meanwhile, Missouri is coming off a game where they beat Massachusetts 45-3, so it’s essentially a bye week as well.
In the preseason, this game was labeled as toss up and still has the potential to be. The line opened at Missouri -7 and has moved to Missouri -4.5. Both fan bases seem to think they will find a way to lose, but Auburn has proven that they are more than capable of throwing the game away.
The one glimmer of hope that Auburn Tigers football fans can have is that when playing teams like Boston College, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt, Missorui has looked human or worse against that level of competition. In this college football preview, we will look at key players for both teams and keys for the Auburn Tigers to beat the Missouri Tigers on the road.
Keys Players for Auburn
The key Auburn Tigers on offense for this football game are the offensive line, Jarquez Hunter and Cam Coleman.
Missouri’s defense is good at getting pressure on the quarterback, considering they have 13 sacks total coming from multiple players. Auburn’s offensive line is going to have to prepare for this and attack the defense for two reasons – open holes for Jarquez Hunter and protect Payton Thorne.
Head coach Hugh Freeze has stated multiple times that they need to get Hunter the ball more often. This week is where Freeze can put his money where his mouth is.
How does Auburn get the offense rolling?
Hugh Freeze said it was Jarquez Hunter.
What does @aburcham04 think that looks like on Saturday?
Catch my conversation with the voice of Auburn PLUS a look inside the film room. All in this morning's episode of CoMo Coffee
⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/YHZEHqgKkN— Billy Jones (@BillyJones615) October 18, 2024
Missouri gives up 121 yards per game on the ground. Establishing the run with Hunter will also help take the pressure off of Thorne, who is likely to have defenders in his face constantly with the pressure Missouri creates defensively. This leads to the final key offensive Auburn player in Cam Coleman.
Coleman has been battling a shoulder injury and trying to recover from it since earlier in the season. Hopefully after the bye week he is healthy and Auburn fans can see a true breakout game. Coleman is as talented as Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams, but we have yet to see his talent to its full manifestation. That needs to change this week for Auburn to have a chance. Unfortunately for Cam, he is reliant on less than stellar quarterback play so far.
On defense, Keldric Faulk and Jalen McLeod are going to have to continue wreaking havoc and creating pressure on this Missouri offense. Brady Cook is not a complete statue, but he is not known for his rushing ability, so Faulk and McLeod can get to him and get him for sacks or pressure. This will be key in slowing down their offense.
The final key player on defense for Auburn is Kayin Lee. Lee will likely have the tough matchup with the Tigers No. 1 option in Luther Burden. Lee does not have to totally stop Burden, but must slow him down so he does not have a monster game.
Key Players for Missouri
Missouri has been lackluster compared to expectation on offense this season with their veteran quarterback and wide receiver combo. However, Cook and Burden will both be impact players for the Missouri Tigers.
Cook currently has 1351 yards passing, seven touchdowns passing and one interception. He will move the ball and likely protect it. His touchdown numbers are surprisingly low, but expect coach Eli Drinkwitz to have a gameplan to get their superstar wide receiver involved.
Burden is one of the other impact players in this battle of the Tigers. He will command the attention of the defense with his versatile skillset. Currently he has 31 receptions for 398 yards receiving and four touchdowns, and that is paired with five carries for 90 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns.
2025’s WR1: Luther Burdenpic.twitter.com/AyzApY5ym9
— kev mahserejian (@RotoSurgeon) October 12, 2024
The Auburn Tigers will need to key in on him and his counterpart Theo Wease in this football game; who leads the team in receiving yards and is tied with Burden for the lead for receptions.
The final key player for the Missouri Tigers is running back Nate Noel. Noel has 79 carries for 471 yards rushing and two touchdowns, averaging six yards per carry. Noel is a slight threat to receive out of the backfield as well, with 14 receptions for 45 yards.
The Missouri offense is loaded with talent, but has yet to fully put it together against top competition so that bares asking is Auburn a high enough competition level and can the Missouri Tigers put it all together against them?
Missouri’s defense has been their surprising shining star this year with 10 players that have a half-sack or more, and 16 players that have one or more pass deflection. The keys for Missouri against the Auburn Tigers are Corey Flagg Jr., Marvin Burks Jr., and Chris McClellan.
Flagg, a junior linebacker, leads the team in total tackles with 29. He also has one sack and one interception. Flagg is the type of player that will be all over the field.
Meanwhile, Burks is second on the team in tackles with 27 total, with one pass deflection and interception from his safety position. Don’t be shocked if he gets another interception this weekend.
Finally, McClellan is third on the team in total tackles with 23, and leads the team with 2.5 sacks and has two pass deflections. He has game wrecking potential from his defensive tackle position. With balanced production from multiple guys, Missouri’s defense may be what wins them this game.
Auburn Tigers Keys to Victory
The keys for the Auburn Tigers are find a way to shut down Missouri’s offense, win the line of scrimmage on offense, and protect the football at all costs. As mentioned above, Missouri’s offense has plenty of talent, but has yet to put it together against an SEC-level school this year.
Auburn will have to create pressure on Brady Cook and force him into mistakes while also not losing track of where Luther Burden is (ever) for them to have a shot at this game.
Offensively, they have to win the line of scrimmage. Missouri has too many players that can sack the quarterback or deflect his passes and create turnovers. Auburn’s turnover margin has been god awful and if they want to compete against Missouri they are going to have to clean this up. Hopefully coming off the bye week this will give them an extra special attention to detail and the offense will look sharp.
Recruiting Roundup
Since the last article, Auburn obtained another commitment flip. Wide receiver Sam Turner flipped from Georgia Tech to Auburn and the three-star prospect says that he is coming in to compete.
BREAKING: Class of 2025 WR Sam Turner has Flipped his Commitment from Georgia Tech to Auburn, he tells me for @on3recruits
The 6’3 195 WR from Atlanta, GA had been Committed to the Yellow Jackets since June
“God is the Greatest! #1186🤞🏾”https://t.co/UfJwVL8foI pic.twitter.com/DMf3IsoZEo
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) October 11, 2024
Na’eem Offord is another recruit that Auburn is targeting to flip. The Birmingham native is currently committed to Ohio State. After the Duece Knight commitment, Auburn fans should also watch Ousmane Kromah who recently committed to Georgia, but has been heavily recruited by the Tigers and their new quarterback commit in Knight.
Knight also is helping to recruit four-star safety Martels Carter, who he facetimed shortly after committing to Auburn. Carter is currently committed to Kentucky. Knight’c commitment will be huge to see who he can help recruit similar to Perry Thompson and Walker White last year.
