3 Storylines I'm Watching in Auburn's Matchup With Mississippi State

Auburn football continues November with an away trip this Saturday, traveling to the Davis Wade Stadium to face the Mississippi State Bulldogs in its penultimate SEC contest of the season.

Head coach Alex Golesh will look to pick up another win in conference play, which would put the program at a .500 record heading into the Iron Bowl later this month with the No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide.

Heading into the contest, here are three things I’ll be keeping a close eye on throughout the contest.

1. Full Four Quarters on the Road

Some of Auburn’s best football has been played on the road over the course of this season, which is an impressive feat for how the Tigers have been in recent years in away environments.

The catch? Golesh hasn’t seen his group play a full 60 minutes at times, and if it can’t do that in Starkville on Saturday, Auburn will lose this weekend’s contest.

The Tigers did it against Tennessee, going into the halftime break with a 7-3 lead on a top-25 team in the country. Auburn would end up losing by 10 in the final half. Then, Golesh’s team cut the lead to two points in the fourth quarter against the No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels. The group would allow 28 unanswered points in the final 22 minutes of the game.

Of course, the only outlier here is Auburn’s win over No. 1 Georgia, where a full four-quarter effort was shown to pick up the monumental upset. If the Tigers can do that again with cowbells ringing the entire game, it will leave Golesh satisfied, and with a win.

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2. Passing Attack Advantage

Auburn’s emphasis all season has been to run the football, which has been wishy-washy at times throughout the season. However, there’s an advantage in the pass game for the Tigers heading into Saturday’s contest.

Mississippi State gives up an average of 263 passing yards per game in the conference this season. The last two quarterbacks to play the Bulldogs, Texas’s Arch Manning and Vanderbilt’s Jared Curtis, were the only two not to throw over 250 yards on them all season, despite Manning’s game being a blowout.

For a quarterback who hasn’t thrown over 250 yards since September, expect quarterback Byrum Brown to be more prevalent through the air, especially with Mississippi State only allowing 121 rushing yards per game so far this season.

3. Bowling?

One of the first steps for Golesh to bring Auburn back to the national landscape was to get the Tigers bowl eligible for the first time since the 2023 season. Now, he’s only a win away from doing that, and getting it against a conference opponent will make it sweeter.

It’s a step in the right direction with a win, as Auburn looks to pick up at least a seven-win season with Samford as the other team that the Tigers have to play before going to Tuscaloosa after Thanksgiving. If Golesh can take down the program’s in-state rival, though, it would make it just as sweet.

Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. central from Starkville, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

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