Five players who saw their stock fall vs California

Here are five players that saw their stock "fall" after playing the Golden Bears.

Author:
Auburn Daily Staff
Publish date:
Sep 10, 2023 3:53 PM EDT

In this story:

Auburn's game against Cal was about as ugly as it could have possibly been.

The Tigers escaped with a 14-10 win, but turnovers, poor decision making, and a lack of creativity on offense held Auburn down.

Here are five players that saw their stock "fall" after playing the Golden Bears.

QB Payton Thorne

Thorne hasn't impressed through two games as an Auburn Tiger.

He completed 9 of 14 pass attempts for just 94 yards, two touchdowns and a bad interception.

LB Larry Nixon III

While a tackling machine at North Texas, Nixon struggled in his first start with Auburn. He had a 67.0 PFF grade, gave up 37 yards after the catch, and was apart of arguably the Tigers' worst unit of the game outside of Eugene Asante.

WR Shane Hooks

Hooks changed his number from No. 11 to No. 3 before the Cal game. He did not record a catch despite being on the field.

Either Auburn is struggling to get him open, or Hooks isn't picking up what the Tigers are putting down.

DE Mosiah Nasili-Kite

Nasili-Kite had the worst pass rush grade among Tigers who played more than 50 snaps on Saturday to go along with a missed tackle.

Auburn's defensive line as a whole had good and bad moments, but of the top eight players who received a pass rush grade of 60 or better, six of them were not defensive linemen.

RB Jarquez Hunter

Outside of a 19-yard run on Auburn's second to last possession - on which he immediately lost a fumble on the next play - Hunter struggled to create space and hit holes against Cal. His first game back was not particularly impressive. All other running backs - Damari Alston, Jeremiah Cobb, Brian Battie - finished with a higher YPC average while also not having had as long of a run.

The other three RBs also finished in the top six in PFF's offensive player grades for the game.