One of college football’s hottest teams continued its impressive stretch Saturday. Auburn came into Week 6 with a 4-1 (2-0) record, and they added to that with a dominant 44-23 victory over Ole Miss.

While quarterback Jarrett Stidham continued to be efficient — 235 passing yards and 2 touchdowns on 14-of-21 attempts — it was the Tigers’ run game that imposed its will on the Rebels defense.

Junior running back Kerryon Johnson led the way with a career-high 28 carries. The native of Madison, Ala., turned those carries into 204 yards and three touchdowns. It was the first time that an Auburn running back has topped 200 yards rushing since Kamryn Pettway put up 236 yards against the Rebels in 2016.

Auburn has scored 144 points in its past 3 SEC games.

Johnson also averaged 7.3 yards per carry against Ole Miss, which raised the season average to 5.9 for the former 4-star recruit.

It’s been a tremendous start to the season for Johnson, who has rushed for 504 yards and a whopping 12 touchdowns despite missing two games. If you extrapolate those numbers out to a regular 12-game season, it would be good for 1,512 yards and 36 touchdowns, and that wouldn’t even include postseason play.

Here’s a look at Johnson’s 48-yard touchdown run in the second-quarter of Saturday’s game.

This carry was Johnson’s longest of the day, but surprisingly, it’s only his third longest of the season.

  • 59-yard run against Mississippi State
  • 60-yard run against Georgia Southern

In addition, his three-touchdown performance against the Rebels wasn’t the most that he’s had in a single game this season, either. He punched the ball in five times against Missouri in Week 4.

Coming into Ole Miss game, Johnson was already leading the SEC — and was tied for second in the country — in rushing touchdowns (9), but with him adding three more, it’s entirely possible for him to close Week 6 as the national leader.

It’s worth reiterating that Johnson has done all of this despite missing two games (Clemson and Mercer).

Of course, no one is going to put the defenses for Missouri, Mississippi State and Ole Miss among the conference’s best, but no one is going to argue that 11 touchdowns in three consecutive games against an SEC opponent isn’t impressive, either.

While starting running back Kamryn Pettway dressed out, the coaching staff ultimately decided that he needed time to heal a couple nagging injuries that have been bothering him since earlier this season.

Auburn’s offense made it clear that it hasn’t needed him recently. In fact, his absence has cleared the way for Johnson to dominate the touches, racking up 52 over just the past two weeks.

This Auburn team has become one of the nation’s most balanced, and the idea that Pettway could soon be healthy enough to help contribute to an already dominate run game should, at the very least, make other teams nervous.

Maintaining the health of both Pettway and Johnson, who have both been injury prone over their careers, could end up being the key to Auburn’s season.

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