Domination in College Station

Domination in College Station

September 25, 2019 Skye Underwood By
JaTarvious ‘Boobee’ Whitlow dives into the end zone as the nail in the proverbial Texas A&M coffin in Auburn’s big-time 28-20 SEC road win / Todd Van Emst Auburn Athletics

COLLEGE STATION, TX — The scoreboard read, “AUBURN 28 TEXAS A&M 20” but if there ever was a case of the final score not being indicative of the ass kicking that actually took place on the field, it was Saturday on Kyle Field in front of a shellshocked 101,681 fans. Or at least the ones wearing maroon and white who weren’t among the mass exodus leaving the stadium early in the 3rd quarter after No. 8 Auburn jumped on top of the No. 17 Aggies, 21-3.

A CBS nationally televised audience watched as Auburn controlled the game from opening kickoff till the clock struck 00:00. The Aggies put up a little fight at the end after Auburn went into a bend but don’t break defense where the Tigers exchanged chunks of yardage and a score for valuable minutes that ticked off the clock. The game certainly was never in doubt. Anyone watching, could clearly see beyond the final score — Auburn dominated Texas A&M.

Quite frankly, I can’t remember the last time the Tigers manhandled a high quality opponent on the road like they did against the Aggies on Saturday. It was an old-fashion-country-boy-ass-whoopin’ in every way imaginable from Auburn’s offensive line playing their best game of the season, to the Tigers’ defensive line overwhelming A&M, to special teams, and last but certainly not least, coaching.

For the first time in five years, the Tigers won a true road game as an AP Top 10 team.

Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn, only tenured by Nick Saban in the SEC, coached circles around his old arch nemesis Jimbo Fisher. In his seven seasons on The Plains, Malzahn has staked ownership of a plot of land in East-Central, Texas, and after Saturday’s ‘Domination in College Station,’ the Tiger boss is 4-0 in Gus’ Aggieland.

Prior to the start of the 2019 season, however, a lot of “experts” incorrectly suggested that Malzahn was on the hot seat and could be fired at season’s end. It was the same b.s. that the media have incorrectly suggested throughout his Auburn career, while he quietly builds a potential perennial college football powerhouse on The Plains. After all, we’re amid the greatest decade (2010-2019) in Auburn Football history, and like I’ve said many times before, there’s one name that stands alone when considering the construction and evolution of the Auburn football program the past 10 years — Gus Malzahn.

Under Malzahn, the Tigers have been ranked in the Top 10 in each of his seven seasons as head coach, but now it’s time for his program to take that next step and actually finish the season as a championship contender on a consistent basis.

So far, so good.

After 1/3 of the season has already passed us by, Auburn is the only undefeated team in the country who can boast that two of their four wins came against Top 25 opponents, which is why Malzahn is your way too early SEC Coach of the Year. And, yes, there’s plenty of football left to be played, but there is not a team in the country who has a more impressive résumé than the Auburn Tigers four games into the season.

And lest we forget about one of Malzahn’s most impressive decisions at Auburn came after an average, ho-hum 7-6 season in 2015 when he was able to hire away defensive coordinator Kevin Steele from SEC West rival LSU. Of course, the hire was met with criticism from the media, but now four years later, it was arguably the greatest assistant coach hire in the country during that same span considering Auburn’s defensive renaissance under Steele. The Tigers have given up an average of 18 points per game during Steele’s 3 & 1/3 seasons at Auburn, good for 6th best in the country since his arrival on The Plains.

And Saturday, in the house that the 12th man built, the pinnacle of Auburn’s defensive revolution was on full display as The Steele Curtain bullied the Aggie offense.

If there was a single stat that best summed up the game, look no further than A&M’s rushing yards. Going into halftime, the Aggies had 12 yards on the ground, while their running backs averaged 0.9 yards per carry in the first half. The second half wasn’t much better, though A&M finished with 56 yards rushing for the game, 22 of them came on a 3rd & 30 run where Auburn played a prevent type defense where the defenders backed up to the 1st down line in an attempt to keep everything in front of them to prevent a long conversion.

In fact, about the only thing that went the Aggies’ way on Saturday was the coin toss, but even that had a dire consequence after A&M deferred to the second half, which meant Auburn could try and take the crowd out of the game early and that’s exactly what the Tigers did.

Although Auburn was (3-0) and No. 8 in the country entering the game with Texas A&M, the Tigers had gotten off to a slow start offensively in each of their first three matchups.

People weren’t sold on Malzahn’s squad.

CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee, who actually graduated from Auburn, called his alma mater, “paper Tigers” and the Auburn offensive line “a massive problem” after the Tigers defeated (3-1) Tulane, 24-6. I reminded Sallee that Auburn actually covered the spread and the Green Wave were better than he suspected. And what do you know, a week later Tulane was celebrating a big win over American Athletic Conference foe Houston, who many consider a respectable club.

Not to mention, Sallee really put his foot in his mouth when he thought it was a good idea to type this on twitter and hit send: “…the defense is not going to keep them (Auburn) in every single game.” Yikes. The Auburn defense looked scary good on Saturday, clearly capable of keeping Auburn “in every single game.”

Sallee certainly wasn’t alone.

Kirk Herbstreit thought A&M would come out as the victors. However, after Auburn showed the same relentless play in the 2nd half as the 1st, Kirk rather oddly congratulated the Tigers on the win, though there was plenty of time left in the game, but apparently it was easy to see that the Texas A&M Aggies were no match for the Auburn Tigers. And it wasn’t just Kirk, but the majority of college football experts across the country predicted A&M to beat Auburn.

Vegas tabbed the Aggies a four-point favorite in the SEC West showdown. Auburn not only upped their record to (4-0, 1-0) straight up on the year, but the Tigers have been one of the best bets in 2019 with a 4-0 record against the spread after their 8-point win over the Aggies.

Even former Auburn head coach and current SEC Network analyst Gene Chizik predicted A&M would control the line of scrimmage and win the game, but it didn’t take long to see that all those predictions calling for an Aggie victory were the equivalent of the deer in headlights look that Jimbo Fisher had on the sidelines upon realizing that the game featured men against boys and he was in charge of the little ones.

Auburn played like a team on a mission with something to prove and the Tigers couldn’t have gotten off to a faster start, largely in part to the 100% healthy return of speed demon Anthony Schwartz, minus the cast of course. The sophomore speedster injured his hand at the beginning of fall camp and had to have surgery to repair it. He played in the first three games in a very limited role while wearing a cast. Saturday was his first game back without any limitations and boy, did it ever show.

It was not even two minutes into the matchup before the fastest college football player in the country, Schwartz was celebrating with his teammates in the end zone after humbling the Aggie defense with world class speed on a 57-yard touchdown run on an end-around.

By the time the opening quarter was over, Auburn had built a 14-0 lead over the home team after Tiger quarterback Joey Gatewood found tight end John Samuel Shenker for a 6-yard touchdown pass. Yes, Auburn threw to the tight end, which is becoming more of a trend lately.

And it wasn’t just Auburn’s offense making plays, but the vaunted Steele Curtain defense proved to be as good as any in the country.

College football’s best defensive line was undoubtedly on brand vs. A&M.

Auburn All-American defensive tackle Derrick Brown continually blew up the A&M offensive line on his way to a career best game earning SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week honors. The 6-foot-5, 325-pounder totaled 4 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 passes defended (batted down), and 1 forced fumble.

And Derrick Brown isn’t the only Tiger who played a hell of a game. You could argue that Malzahn’s entire team played one of their best games of his Auburn coaching career considering the competition and environment. The boys in the orange and blue haven’t looked this good as a collective unit since they massacred Purdue in Music City.

They say everything is bigger in Texas and after last Saturday, that most certainly includes Auburn’s two biggest wins in the early season.

Three weeks ago, Auburn opened up the college football season in Texas at Jerry’s World when the Tigers defeated previously #11 Oregon, 27-21. Apparently the Tigers feel right at home in the Lone Star State after their week four thumping of #17 Texas A&M and who can blame them, after all, their head coach owns a plot of land in East-Central, Texas.

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