Nov. 16—Making rulings on the Auburn Tigers’ efforts in Saturday’s win over Louisiana-Monroe:
Offense — B: Just remember, the level of difficulty wasn’t there. Auburn came close to having a 300-yard passer, 100-yard rusher and 100-yard receiver in the same game. Payton Thorne fell 14 passing yards shy of the Tigers reaching that feat. Jarquez Hunter did his part (14 carries, 102 yards), so did Cam Coleman (eight catches, 100 yards) and KeAndre Lambert-Smith (six catches, 104 yards). If Thorne wasn’t coming off an injury, maybe better than a 22-of-32, five-touchdown effort could have been achieved. Tsk, tsk. The five TD throws tied an Auburn school record.
Defense — C: Again, there’s that level of difficulty thing. Still, the Warhawks had a paltry 153 yards offense before that last-minute junk touchdown. Still, that TD lands a letter-grade penalty for Auburn.
Special teams — B: Auburn did work on its kickoff coverage a lot. Louisiana-Monroe didn’t return a single kick. Ian Vachon will be a good story after kicking two field goals. He’s part of the Birmingham-Southern diaspora after BSC closed its doors. On Saturday, Vachon kicked two field goals. He’s a walk-on at Auburn.
Coaching — C: Have we mentioned that level of difficulty thing? Such success against the Warhawks won’t coax any contract extensions from anyone. Even Auburn.
Overall — B: Can’treally draw too many conclusions from Saturday’s leg-stretching exercise. Not thinking too much toilet paper will be expended over this one. We’ll see in a week against Texas A&M and in two vs. Alabama.
