Saturday was not the best day for SEC football pride. Tennessee lost to Georgia State. Mizzou lost to Wyoming. Ole Miss lost to Memphis. South Carolina lost to North Carolina. Auburn, however, made sure Saturday night ended on a high note for the SEC, coming back to defeat Oregon 27-21.

Tigers RB Boobee Whitlow said AU was motivated by conference pride.

“Nobody wanted to lose to Oregon. We feel like that’s a bad reputation on them. What are they, ACC? Pac-12? I didn’t even know what they were. A Pac-12 team coming in and beating an SEC team, we can’t take that,” Whitlow told reporters, per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.

Whitlow earned the right to talk after gaining 110 yards on 24 carries as the game’s leading rusher. Auburn’s legendary streak of consecutive seasons with a 1,000-yard rusher was snapped last year, but Whitlow is off to a strong start to potentially beginning a new streak.