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Last thing Ole Miss defense wants to see? Auburn running game
By John Crist
Published:
Maybe the hottest team in the SEC travels to perhaps the coldest as Auburn takes on Ole Miss in Week 9 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
The Tigers are coming off a 56-3 annihilation of Arkansas on The Plains this past Saturday that nobody saw coming. Winners of four straight after a 1-2 start, they have become sneaky contenders in the West.
The Rebels, on the other hand, are fresh off a 38-21 defeat to LSU in Death Valley that included yet another blown double-digit lead. Despite the presence of Chad Kelly — supposedly the premier quarterback in the league — Mississippi didn’t score a point in the second half and dropped to 3-4 on the season.
Most alarming for the Rebs, they watched helplessly as Leonard Fournette set a Bayou Bengals record with 284 yards rushing.
Just seven days prior, Ole Miss surrendered a career-high 180 yards on the ground to Rawleigh Williams III of Arkansas. They are currently dead last in the SEC against the run, giving up 226.9 yards per game.
That’s good news for Auburn, which just butchered the Hogs to the tune of 543 yards on 57 carries — 7 rushing touchdowns, too. Six different ball-carriers showed up in the box score, and not one of them averaged less than 5.6 yards per rush. Sean White, the No. 1-rated QB in the conference, needed to throw just 11 passes.
Kamryn Pettway, a 6-foot, 240-pound battering ram between the tackles, led the way with 192 yards and 2 TDs on 27 attempts.
We were under the impression that the Tigers were dangerously thin at tailback. Roc Thomas had transferred. Jovon Robinson was kicked off the team. Malik Miller got hurt. Default starter Kerryon Johnson came up lame, too.
Apparently, Pettway (above) only needed a chance to prove what he can do. After Johnson went down early in Week 6 at Mississippi State, Pettway took over and ran 39 times for 169 yards and 3 scores. He’s currently tied for fourth in the conference — ahead of some big names, including Fournette — in rushing with 697 yards.
But Pettway wasn’t the only breathtaking ball-carrier vs. Arkansas. Eli Stove, Kameron Martin and Stanton Truitt stood out, too.
“Obviously, Kamryn Pettway and Kerryon are our starters, so those are the guys that we’re going to lean on,” offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said Wednesday, according to 247Sports. “But having Kameron come along and do what he’s doing gives you a lot of confidence, especially with Malik out.”
Originally a four-star recruit from Port Arthur (Texas) Memorial High School, Martin racked up 80 yards, highlighted by a 51-yard touchdown run against the Razorbacks. At 5-foot-10 and 177 pounds, he’s built nothing like Pettway.
“I think you’ve seen he’s got a lot of ability,” Lashlee said of Martin. “He’s done a really good job the last two games, caught the big pass at Mississippi State, did some good things the other night.”
At this time a year ago, Martin was still at the prep level — other SEC offers included Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee. Had Thomas and Robinson still been on Auburn’s roster, Martin would more than likely have been a redshirt candidate. Instead, he’s contributing as a true freshman.
“We talk to our freshmen about, after the midpoint in the season, we’re no longer freshmen,” coach Gus Malzahn said. “He really responded like that as well as a lot of our other freshmen did, too. He’s a very talented young man.”
With Johnson scheduled to return Saturday, Martin is a peg further down the depth chart again. He’s proven himself, though.
“We’ve just got to try to continue to find ways to have (him) involved,” Lashlee (below) said. “But it also just gives us confidence that if we continue to have an injury here or there, that he can help us win.”
The Rebels haven’t fared well facing some of the more talented runners on their schedule. Even in their 45-14 win over Georgia, the trio of Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and Brian Herrien had 34 rushes for 201 yards and 2 TDs.
In Mississippi’s four losses this year, enemy backs have run wild. In addition to the aformentioned Williams and Fournette, Florida State’s Dalvin Cook accounted for 91 yards on the ground and 101 more through the air. Alabama’s Damien Harris ran 16 times for 144 yards — quarterback Jalen Hurts added 146 of his own.
Malzahn always wants to run the ball and run it with pace. He can’t help but smell blood in the Oxford water right now.
“Gus’ offenses have always been difficult to prepare for because of all the different looks you see, and they very seldom stay the same before the snap,” Rebs coach Hugh Freeze said Wednesday, according to 247Sports. “It’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of things going on.”
Even White, more of a traditional dropback passer than what we’ve seen previously from Malzahn, can move the chains with his legs. He had 61 yards and a score on only 4 attempts facing the Hogs, most notably a 41-yarder.
“Any of those guys on the field could carry the ball on a given play,” Freeze said. “It’s always been that way, and it is a difficult thing. You’ve got to play assignment-sound, for sure.”
Even if Auburn has two losses on the season, they’ve come at the hands of No. 3 Clemson and No. 9 Texas A&M. Unranked in the preseason, the Tigers have ascended to 15th — mostly on the strength of the nation’s third-ranked rushing offense. A deep stable of backs has breathed new life into Malzahn’s run-heavy scheme.
And if there’s one thing Ole Miss may not be prepared for at this juncture, it’s another Saturday of ground-and-pound.
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
John Crist is an award-winning contributor to Saturday Down South.
