Auburn football had/has exactly one tough non-conference opponent in the 2021 season. And that game is already behind them.
Besides Penn State, this season is a cakewalk. Yea Shawn Elliott, I’m talking to you.
Akron and Alabama State had the misfortune of catching Bryan Harsin’s Tigers out of the gate playing in front of 80,000 people after COVID-19 stripped Jordan-Hare bare in 2020.
Georgia State is a team with a big-talking coach but an insufficient defensive front that will struggle to be any sort of roadblock against an unstoppable Tank Bigsby coming off of a third straight 100-yard performance. Ask Army, who you know the run is coming from and don’t have Dark Horse Heisman candidate Bo Nix (this is the year…still) on their side, what the Panthers are capable of doing (and not doing) defensively following a Week 1 blowout.
Anyway, the 2022 schedule. It’s tougher. significantly. A second–and as of now final–matchup against the Nittany Lions will take place on the Plains in 2022, but the MAC will be replaced with the Mountain West with the 2020 conference winners San Jose State rolling into town. Elsewhere, Mercer, who covered the spread against Alabama in Week 2 and is a step up from the Alabama State Hornets (though not in the marching band department), is the unfortunate first victim of the Harsinal next year.
Then, the Sunbelt is swapped with Conference USA’s Western Kentucky coming to town for a tune-up right before Tuscaloosa hosts the Tigers in 2022’s final regular season game.
Athens plays host to the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry game against Georgia, and Egg Bowl opponents Mississippi State and Ole Miss both host Auburn football in the Magnolia State.
Not going to Kyle Field, Tiger Stadium, or Razorbacks stadium is nice, though, and Missouri at home is a reasonable challenge assuming Eli Drinkwitz doesn’t have those Tigers soaring too.
That’d be quite Auburn after all.
Enjoy the rest of 2021, Tiger fans. The gauntlet becomes even more difficult in 2022.