Auburn has gotten off to a terrific start to the season, going 3-0 before entering conference play this Saturday with a trip to College Station lined up.

The Tigers turned plenty of heads in the season opener, beating Oregon 27-21 on a neutral field and on a national stage in primetime in the closing moments of the game. Now the Tigers will be tested for the first time this season on the road against a ranked opponent eager to jump back up the polls by securing a top 10 victory over the Tigers.

Saturday’s game in College Station will be the first road game of Bo Nix’s college career and until we see what the Tigers can do against a talented Texas A&M team coached by Jimbo Fisher, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum is reserving judgment on the Tigers when it comes to their championship potential.

During a recent appearance on ESPN morning show “Get Up,” the mouth of the South was asked to share his early thoughts on Auburn’s upcoming road test at Texas A&M.

“I’m looking to see if Auburn is for real,” Finebaum said on the show. “They went, of course, with the raw freshman Bo Nix against Oregon, pulled that game out. If Auburn goes to College Station and wins this game, you can move A&M off the board and suddenly, Auburn looks like a contender. They have a road game in two weeks at Florida, which now looks very winnable with all the injuries there. They still have to go to LSU, a place they haven’t won in about 400 years. But they have Alabama and Georgia at home, so, two years ago they pulled this off and a win here and they’ll get some energy.”

This will be the first of many tough league games each of these teams face in 2019 and while losing this matchup won’t be devasting to either program, it could serve as a crossroads for what is to come by season’s end. A win here and each of these teams will continue to march toward a potential SEC West title while a loss could start a downward spiral that won’t reach its end until late November based on the tests that are yet to come on each teams schedule.