AUBURN, Ala (EETV) - After a disappointing loss at home to Georgia last week, the Auburn Tigers look to move on and hopefully get a win Saturday afternoon.
With two games left in the regular season and an unannounced bowl game in December, the Tigers are looking to finish strong and potentially win out. Auburn Head Coach Gus Malzahn has hope for the rest of Auburn’s season saying, “Now we'll turn the page. Our goal now is to win 10 games, which is extremely hard to do with a schedule like we have.”
Although Saturday’s game wasn’t the result Auburn fans wanted to see, Malzahn saw some promising things, “We actually had some explosive plays that got us in pace. We had some that we got the first first down, and the fact that we were wearing them down, that helped, too.”
Malzahn also saw some things that gives him some confidence in his offensive moving forward. Malzahn says, “Well you look at the fourth quarter -- that gives you something to build upon. At the same time, right now I think we are in the top half in our league offensively, so there are some things -- we've just got to put more points on the board.”
Saturday’s game will be the 28th matchup between Auburn and Samford and Auburn holds a 27-0-1 all-time record against Samford. The Bulldogs are 2-77-3 against SEC teams.
Unlike the game against Georgia, offensive progress should not be a problem for Auburn on Saturday since Samford is No. 105 (out of 124 teams) in FCS total defense, per ESPN. Samford has given up of average of 448.8 yards per game.
This year, Quarterback Bo Nix has a total of 2,043 yards, running back JaTarvious Whitlow has 576 rushing yards, and wide receiver Seth Williams has 690 receiving yards.
For Samford, Gus Malzahn is hoping to use some tactics from previous games to end on a strong note. Malzahn says, “We've got Samford coming up, and I think there are some things that we can take from that fourth quarter that will help us the rest of the season. We're turning the page for Samford and looking forward to finishing the season in a positive way.”
The matchup between Auburn and Samford is set for Saturday Nov. 23 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m CT and the game can be found on SEC Network.
