Just like with his offensive coordinator from 2023, Hugh Freeze “moved on” from DC Ron Roberts after Auburn’s poor season and replaced him with retread DJ Durkin (who got a kid killed at Maryland) and has hopped between Ole Miss and Texas A&M, so teaming up with Freeze at Auburn only made perfect sense.
Durkin has improved Auburn’s defense by a point and a half per game over last year, so I guess it has technically been an upgrade for them. For the Tiger’s various offensive lows and occasional highs, their defense has been mostly solid. They’re a top 30 unit in scoring defense and are one of the better run-stuffing units in the country, giving up 3.0 yards per carry on the season, and they’ve similarly done well at preventing downfield passes.
On the other hand, the Tigers are prone to giving up a lot of short and intermediate passing yards and have forced forced very few turnovers. They can struggle to get off the field at times, despite their overall scoring results being pretty decent.
Sound familiar?
Their defensive scheme is essentially the same as Alabama’s under Pete Golding – a 2-4-5 with a four-man front and a “star” slot corner.
Defensive ends Keldric Faulk and Jalen McLeod each have 7 sacks from the edges of the defense and have 22 total tackles for loss between them. They’re a formidable duo on the edges, and will likely be problem #1 for Alabama’s tackles.
Veteran linebacker Eugene Asante returns from being one of their top players from a year ago, and Duke transfer Dorian Mausi has taken charge as a veteran playcaller in the middle. Then there’s freshman Demarcus Riddick, who’s burst into the starting rotation over the last month and has impressive athleticism if a lack of experience. Riddick, of course, is the guy who decided to trash talk Ryan Williams for no reason, and, of course, won’t be have to be the one guarding him.
Kayin Lee and freshman Jay Crawford have been holding down the outside corner spots (former Alabama DB, Antonio Kite, has been dismissed from the team after less than one season), while Sylvester Smith has been the guy in the slot. As a whole, the trio is probably the least experienced/weakest link of the defense.
The Tigers’ safety duo, on the other hand, has turned out to be one of the better pairings in the SEC. Jerrin Thompson is a 5th year senior who played in all four seasons for Texas before transferring to Auburn (he now has 60 career game appearances… can we PLEASE be done with Covid years now?), and has been a stabilizing veteran on the backend for the Tigers and is second on the team in tackles as well as leading them with 2 interceptions. Then there’s freshman Kaleb Harris, who’s been a pleasant young surprise for the Tigers in the other safety spot and looks to be a budding future star in the SEC.
Unfortunately for Alabama, this doesn’t seem to be a good matchup for the Tide. The Tiger’s strengths: their edge rush, speedy off-ball linebackers, and deep safeties, are built to shut down the Jalen Milroe scramble game and his deep ball, plus tackles Elijah Pritchett and Kadyn Proctor have had their issues with speed rushes.
Essentially, Alabama will need to have a patient passing attack to beat the Tiger defense, and we haven’t seen that from Milroe since before the South Carolina game. I think Williams and Germie Bernard will likely get a free a few times and Alabama will have decent success with Jam Miller and Justice Haynes on the ground, but negative plays will killers for them. Ultimately, Alabama scores somewhere in the range of 21-24 points.
Here’s to hoping the Tide defense comes to play and keeps Auburn’s roller-coaster offense on the bottom end of things to squeak out a low-scoring victory.
