Bring on Bama.

[aubiefifty 16,791]

oanow.com

Auburn shuts out Samford, picks up eighth win

Justin Lee | Auburn Reporter Opelika-Auburn Newsjlee@oanow.comFollow on Twitter @AUBlog|@ByJustinLee

4-5 minutes

There’s only one thing left for Auburn to do now.

Bring on Bama.

JaTarvious Whitlow scored the first two touchdowns, Bo Nix set a freshman record, the defense held down a shutout, and the Auburn football team dropped Samford 52-0 on Saturday in its rainy tune-up for the Iron Bowl in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Whitlow’s second touchdown kicked off the scoring in a 24-point quarter for Auburn in the second, in which a ho-hum 7-0 lead at the end of the first stretched into a 31-0 advantage by halftime. The defense forced four turnovers in the game.

Auburn hosts rival Alabama at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday in Jordan-Hare.

Alabama blasted Western Carolina 66-3 in its own nonconference tune-up across the state.

“We’re excited,” Gus Malzahn said simply outside the locker room Saturday, when he was asked to look ahead. “We’ve got the Iron Bowl at home.

“It’s as good as it gets.”

And Auburn’s back to its winning ways going in.

Nix topped Stan White’s record for most completions by a freshman in the win, and tied White’s record for freshman touchdown tosses. He hit Harold Joiner on a 10-yard touchdown in the second quarter to make it 21-0, before Shaun Shivers punched in another touchdown about two minutes later after Zakoby McClain forced a turnover in Samford territory.

Roger McCreary recovered that one in the air and put Auburn in position to go up 28-0.

Christian Tutt recovered a fumble by Samford quarterback Liam Welch earlier in the first. Tutt intercepted Welch later in the third quarter. Senior safety Jeremiah Dinson pulled down Auburn’s other forced turnover, grabbing an interception in the second quarter.

Auburn’s defense held Samford to 114 yards of total offense. Second-teamers came on for Auburn early in the third quarter.

“I think it gives us a lot of momentum,” freshman linebacker Owen Pappoe said of going into the Iron Bowl.

“We held them to under 150 yards of offense and that was our goal — and we got the shutout on top of that,” he also said. “We’re really pumped about it.”

Samford fell to 5-7, playing out of the Division I’s FCS.

Nix hit on 15 of 23 passes for 150 passing yards and a touchdown. Nix has hit 185 completions in his freshman season, beating White’s freshman record of 180. His 14th touchdown pass, to Joiner, tied White’s freshman mark in that category.

Auburn’s offense finished without a turnover while the defense forced four.

“Obviously, anytime you shut an opponent out, that’s really something in college football. Our defense did that,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said after the win. “I thought our offense did a good job on the ground and through the air.

“The first half it was miserable, the weather was. Our guys handled that well, we didn’t have any turnovers. We got in the second half, we were able to play a lot of different people. It really didn’t get sloppy. I thought our guys played good, clean football.”

Backup quarterback Cord Sandberg hit transfer receiver Zach Farrar for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, under grey skies in Auburn. Rain poured over the field in the first half, but the Tigers hardly seemed to let to let it affect them.

Auburn picked up its eighth win, moving on its new goal to win 10 — beating Alabama and bringing home a trophy from a bowl game.

“I’d say we’re really confident,” Nix said. “We’re still kind of frustrated after the season we’ve had — but to finish strong would be great heading into next year.”

[WVR 818]

Bring them on!! I will be there yelling for my Tigers. 
War Eagle!!

Beat bama

[Farmer Brown 2,391]

I will be rooting for the Tigers, but I have low expectations. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but Gus will go into overload mode, and do the usual. 

[WarTim 3,456]

Death to all that is dark pink. WDE 

[AU64 10,122]

The entire sports world is counting on AU this week.   Just gotta figure out how to control those speedy WRs......who are much more of a problem than their QB IMO. 

[gr82be 14,424]

2 minutes ago, AU64 said:

The entire sports world is counting on AU this week.   Just gotta figure out how to control those speedy WRs......who are much more of a problem than their QB IMO. 

I hate knowing that every incompletion for Alabama will result in me looking for flags on the field. I have zero faith in a fair game by the refs. 

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

The entire sports world is counting on AU this week.   Just gotta figure out how to control those speedy WRs......who are much more of a problem than their QB IMO. 

This^^^^^^ Mac could have started at Bama this year and their record would still be the same. Tua is a phenomenal QB, but with the OFF line he has and these 4 guys catching the football is what makes bama so dangerous. I think if we are going to have to have a plan similar to what we did defensively against LSU to stop them. On Offense we will need 24 points to win. I think if we score 24 points we walk out as winners. 

[sevenlee36 1,654]

In Gus I Trust. The Gus bus is having work done but we will show up and we will give it our best.

[aubiefifty 16,791]

1 hour ago, Farmer Brown said:

I will be rooting for the Tigers, but I have low expectations. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but Gus will go into overload mode, and do the usual. 

i quit getting my hopes up after florida and lsu. i still pull like hell but it hurts less. but if gus gets this one he wil take some heat off of himself and he knows it.

[MaineTiger 33]

At the grocery store this morning and a born-and-raised Mainer who worked @ UAB in the early ‘80s told me to kick bama’s butt (I’m decked out in Auburn gear)! He rooted for AU because “bama fans were just a bunch of arrogant rednecks” and has kept tabs on us ever since.

It’s a good feeling getting a War Eagle at a Hannaford in Waterboro, Me! 

[Sully to Beasley 643]

I am going to stay positive this week...positive that we are gonna kick the snot out of the criminal tahd!

                                                                        

[tbone1430 1,346]

Regardless of all the crap that’s going on I will never stop cheering on our men on the field. Beat the turds and put the little dictator in his place!! War Eagle!! 🦅

[Viper 3,132]

2 hours ago, Tigerpro2a said:

On Offense we will need 24 points to win. I think if we score 24 points we walk out as winners. 

Lowest they've scored is 35. They'll score 28. We'll need at least 29 to win.

[tbone1430 1,346]

1 minute ago, Viper said:

Lowest they've scored is 35. They'll score 28. We'll need at least 29 to win.

Lowest LSU scored this season other than us is 36 and we only allowed 23. And the turds don’t have a Heisman caliber qb back there. I’d agree with you if Tua was playing but since not I don’t think they score more than 24 on us. But I do think 28 is the magic number for us to most likely win. 

[Viper 3,132]

11 minutes ago, tbone1430 said:

Lowest LSU scored this season other than us is 36 and we only allowed 23. And the turds don’t have a Heisman caliber qb back there. I’d agree with you if Tua was playing but since not I don’t think they score more than 24 on us. But I do think 28 is the magic number for us to most likely win. 

Jones throws a good deep ball. With their NFL WRs, he'll hit at least two of them to get to 28 points.

Sims and Coker were similar QB talent, but had NFL WRs to hit bombs and break games open.

[tbone1430 1,346]

5 minutes ago, Viper said:

Jones throws a good deep ball. With their NFL WRs, he'll hit at least two of them to get to 28 points.

Sims and Coker were similar QB talent, but had NFL WRs to hit bombs and break games open.

Sims played against Grandpa Ellis’ defense which was a joke. Coker barely did anything against us it was Henry that game that had over 270 yards. JMO but I respectfully disagree especially with it being at home also. Just need our DBs to bring their A game and have the D line be the disruptive force they’ve been all season. 

[Viper 3,132]

1 minute ago, tbone1430 said:

Sims played against Grandpa Ellis’ defense which was a joke. Coker barely did anything against us it was Henry that game that had over 270 yards. JMO but I respectfully disagree especially with it being at home also. Just need our DBs to bring their A game and have the D line be the disruptive force they’ve been all season. 

I wasn't stating solely Sims' & Coker's performances against us. Just comparing their talent to Jones.

I have no doubt our D-Line will attempt to be disruptive. I also have no doubt they will be held all game with no flags. That equals our DBs having to run with NFL WRs. And again...Jones throws a good deep ball. You do the math.

[tbone1430 1,346]

8 minutes ago, Viper said:

I wasn't stating solely Sims' & Coker's performances against us. Just comparing their talent to Jones.

I have no doubt our D-Line will attempt to be disruptive. I also have no doubt they will be held all game with no flags. That equals our DBs having to run with NFL WRs. And again...Jones throws a good deep ball. You do the math.

Since they have similar talent i was just stating how they stacked up against us when they played.
 

We got held all game against LSU who have similar talent at the WR position and Burrow throws a better deep ball than Jones. I did the math again my opinion. 

[Viper 3,132]

14 minutes ago, tbone1430 said:

Since they have similar talent i was just stating how they stacked up against us when they played.
 

We got held all game against LSU who have similar talent at the WR position and Burrow throws a better deep ball than Jones. I did the math again my opinion. 

Good point, but they still scored 23. We mustered 20 against Ole Miss, the 61st ranked Scoring Defense. I can't see us scoring 24 against the 10th ranked Scoring Defense, unless our D scores.

Footnote: Many like to note how swiss cheese bammer's D is. They average giving up 16.2 PPG. Guess who's D also gives up 16.2 PPG?

[tbone1430 1,346]

4 minutes ago, Viper said:

Good point, but they still scored 23. We mustered 20 against Ole Miss, the 61st ranked Scoring Defense. I can't see us scoring 24 against the 10th ranked Scoring Defense, unless our D scores.

Yeah I understand what you mean. I was just trying to say I think our defense holds them to 24 or below so we’d have to score that much to win. Don’t know if we will be able to I agree with that.

[sevenlee36 1,654]

They’ll be scripted too, try not to spot em 14 early. Don’t kick to Waddle! Tackle great in space. Don’t get beat deep (Thomas too). Score some damn points on offense, I don’t care how you have to do it. Defense and special teams score. Contain their run game. Hit Jones early and often. Leave Jordan Hare with a W.

[EagleEye67 1,939]

2 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

i quit getting my hopes up after florida and lsu. i still pull like hell but it hurts less. but if gus gets this one he wil take some heat off of himself and he knows it.

If we win this one......it will be glory, as it always is when we beat the Gumps.  There will be Tshirts made with the score, and some pithy saying.  Many fans will buy one, and wear it.   We will brag and crow to our friends and family, and co-workers.   For a time.

 

It will also mean......top cover for the administration to keep Gustav here for at least two more years.

 

This is why life is hard.

[sevenlee36 1,654]

8 minutes ago, EagleEye67 said:

If we win this one......it will be glory, as it always is when we beat the Gumps.  There will be Tshirts made with the score, and some pithy saying.  Many fans will buy one, and wear it.   We will brag and crow to our friends and family, and co-workers.   For a time.

 

It will also mean......top cover for the administration to keep Gustav here for at least two more years.

 

This is why life is hard.

Yeah when we look back and realize had we started Cord the whole time we’d of been National Champs. Come on Gus the answers are right in front of you.

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

1 hour ago, sevenlee36 said:

Yeah when we look back and realize had we started Cord the whole time we’d of been National Champs. Come on Gus the answers are right in front of you.

I hope there is Sarcasm in that statement?

[wareaglexx 34]

It's a Work in progress!