Auburn to put improving offense to the test quickly

Auburn senior receiver Tony Stevens had two touchdown receptions during Saturday night's 51-14 dismantling of Arkansas State in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers host No. 17 Texas A&M this week and No. 20 LSU next week.
Auburn senior receiver Tony Stevens had two touchdown receptions during Saturday night's 51-14 dismantling of Arkansas State in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers host No. 17 Texas A&M this week and No. 20 LSU next week.

Auburn's offense erupted last Saturday night in a 51-14 steamrolling of Arkansas State.

The big question now is whether the Tigers can keep producing against a remaining schedule containing six ranked teams, including visits the next two weeks from No. 17 Texas A&M and No. 20 LSU.

Auburn opened its 2016 season against No. 2 Clemson and fell flat in a 19-13 loss, rushing 41 times for 87 yards and experimenting with Sean White, Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III taking turns at quarterback. The Tigers ditched that rotation against the outmanned Red Wolves and went with White, a 6-foot, 200-pound redshirt sophomore who engineered an attack that amassed 706 yards.

"We definitely showed great improvement from week one to two, and you're supposed to do that," Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said this week in a news conference. "You've always got to be pleased when you don't punt, and I was pleased with the tempo. Getting to 85 plays is always a plus."

The Tigers did lose an early turnover and lost a later possession on downs, but the 706 yards set a program record against a Bowl Subdivision opponent. Auburn racked up 712 yards in a 62-3 win over Western Carolina in 2013, when the Tigers went on to win the Southeastern Conference and play Florida State for the national championship.

Auburn assembled stout offenses in 2013 and 2014, but the Tigers struggled last season and didn't show much promise of being better against Clemson.

Arkansas State proved to be the needed medicine, with White completing 17 of 23 passes for 244 yards and three touchdowns, and with Kamryn Pettway (15 carries for 152 yards) and Kerryon Johnson (18 for 124) providing a one-two sophomore punch in the running game. Freshman Kyle Davis had a one-handed reception for 42 yards that quickly made every national highlight reel, while senior Tony Stevens showed he was ready to replace Ricardo Louis and Melvin Ray as the leader of the wideouts with four catches for 75 yards and two scores.

Whether last Saturday was an introduction for the next wave of talented Tigers remains to be seen, but the most important statistic was White's 10 carries for 60 yards.

"He was able to run the football, and I think that's a big factor," head coach Gus Malzahn said. "He did a good job with some of our read zones and gap zones, and he did a good job when things broke down of taking off and making a play. Our quarterback needs to be a runner for us to be as good as we can be, and he was enough of a runner in this game."

When Malzahn was the offensive coordinator for Auburn's 2010 national championship team and Cam Newton was the quarterback, Newton rushed for 1,473 yards. When the 2013 Tigers played for another national crown before losing 34-31 to the Seminoles, Nick Marshall rushed for 1,068 yards.

White knows 1,000 rushing yards isn't a necessity but realizes he needs more than the 81 he had all of last season.

"The defense has to respect the run," White said. "That opens up everything else, so that's something I'll have to do all year."

Auburn's 26-10 win at Texas A&M was one of the few bright spots of last year's 7-6 season, and the two teams are meeting in Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time since the 2014 encounter, when the Aggies pulled off a 41-38 upset. The Tigers had followed up their magical 2013 run by getting to 7-1 and No. 3 in the country before Texas A&M's visit, but the Tigers fumbled away their final two possessions.

The Tigers were 19-3 under Malzahn before the Texas A&M game two years ago, and they're 17-16 since.

Texas A&M enters this weekend with a 2-0 record, having topped UCLA 31-24 in overtime before shellacking Prairie View 67-0 this past Saturday. The Aggies have one of the nation's top defensive ends, junior Myles Garrett, and are in their second season under defensive coordinator Johnny Chavis.

"They've got a phenomenal defensive coordinator," Lashlee said. "He's one of the best ever, but that 2014 game has no bearing this week. We just need to make the same jump from week two to three that we did from one to two."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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