Ad Disclosure
If the weather prognosticators are correct, the 25th installment of the Arkansas-Auburn rivalry will be a soggy one. The Razorbacks play host to the Tigers during Week 8 in Fayetteville with a game that will feature two of the SEC’s better rushing attacks in potentially stormy conditions rife for running the ball.
Both squads have largely underperformed this year, hence their identical 1-2 records in the SEC. There’s plenty on the line, however, in a game where the victor likely banishes the vanquished to the SEC West basement.
Here are five players to keep an eye on when Arkansas (2-4, 1-2) and Auburn (4-2, 1-2) slug it out in Week 8.
- Arkansas RB Alex Collins – With conditions expected to be damp in Fayetteville, establishing the run will be vital. That’s great news for Arkansas, who is powered by one of the best running backs in the SEC in Alex Collins. The junior has tallied 682 yards this season and is just 318 shy of reaching his third-consecutive 1,000-yard season. Not too shabby for a guy who was technically slated as second on the Razorbacks’ depth chart at tailback during training camp. Auburn has had moderate success at slowing down Collins, holding him to 92 yards as a freshman and 68 on the ground last year.
- Auburn RB Peyton Barber – Despite the success of Alex Collins and the accolades of the Razorbacks’ vaunted offensive line, the Auburn Tigers actually have a statistically-better run game than Arkansas (183.7 to 177.3 YPG). One of the few knocks on Peyton Barber early this season was the sophomore’s failure of getting into the end zone. Barber scored just once through the season’s first four games, but has been making up for it ever since, scoring seven times in Auburn’s past two contests, including a five-touchdown performance against San Jose State. With fellow running back Roc Thomas expected to be back for the Tigers, Auburn should rely on a steady run game as freshman Sean White starts just his fourth game since taking over at quarterback for the benched Jeremy Johnson. They’ll need all the firepower they can get on the ground against an Arkansas team astute at stopping the run.
- Arkansas MLB Brooks Ellis – The rain is one aspect that could slow Barber and the Auburn offense and Brooks Ellis is the other. Ellis is coming off a career day where he registered a personal-best 15 tackles (13 unassisted) and 2.5 tackles-for-loss against a dynamic Alabama offensive front. The junior has become a vocal leader on the defense, as well as a statistical one, pacing the Razorbacks with 49 stops on the season. Ellis pairs up with freshman linebacker — and fellow Fayetteville High School alum — Dre Greenlaw to combine for 86 tackles and 6.5 tackles-for-loss for an Arkansas defense that ranks No. 15 in the nation against the run.
- Auburn DT Montravius Adams – The Auburn defense will look to slow down Alex Collins and Arkansas, but will do so at not quite 100 percent. Montravius Adams is expected to play against the Razorbacks after suffering an undisclosed injury last week against Kentucky. The defensive tackle is a brick wall along the defensive front seven, registering 22 tackles on the season and 1.5 tackles-for-loss while forcing two fumbles. The Auburn defense is already playing this season without injured star defensive lineman Carl Lawson, but is expected to get Tré Williams back to 100 percent this week. The sophomore linebacker returned to action against Kentucky after suffering a knee injury earlier in the year against Mississippi State. He finished the game with 4 tackles and a tackle-for-loss in the Tigers’ 30-27 win over the Wildcats. Auburn is going to need Williams (23 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 quarterback hurries) and all hands on deck to stop the Arkansas run game, especially considering that Will Muschamp’s unit is ranked No. 100 in the nation, yielding 197.7 YPG on the ground this season. The Tigers have had success before against the Hogs. Last year, Auburn held Arkansas’ vaunted rushing duo of Collins and Jonathan Williams to a combined 113 yards and the Razorbacks as a team to just 153 rushing yards total.
- Arkansas PK Cole Hedlund – One of the first areas affected by inclement weather is special teams and the Arkansas kicking game could leave the Razorbacks vulnerable in a close contest in the rain. Cole Hedlund has hit just five of his eight attempts all year, 10 behind SEC leader Elliott Fry of South Carolina, leaving the Hogs’ freshman with a penultimate 62.5 percent. His longest field goal on the year is 27 yards. Every other kicker in the SEC has booted a field goal of at least 40 yards. It doesn’t get much better for Arkansas in the punting game, either. Razorback punter Toby Baker has an SEC-worst 842 yards and has the shortest “longest” punt of the year among all conference punters with a 50-yarder. The takeaway is that the right combination of abysmal weather coupled with an even worse kicking game, could spell doom for the Hogs if the run game and rush defense struggle against Auburn.
Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.
