Auburn ended a nearly two-year losing drought at Jordan-Hare Stadium against SEC opponents on Saturday afternoon. In Week 4, the Tigers held on to knock off Vanderbilt 21-15.
It wasn't the best day from the offense, and the defense wasn't perfect, either.
Against a true freshman wunderkind quarterback, 5-star Jared Curtis, Auburn successfully defended its home field, though.
Here are three winners and three losers from the first SEC win of the Alex Golesh era:
Winner: Jacob Bronowski
First-year special teams coordinator Jacob Bronowski had a tremendous outing. His unit was responsible for two major game-changing plays.
In the second quarter, running back Omar Mabson II blocked Commodores punter Tyler Ebel, leading to safety Cade Carlson scooping up the ricocheted ball and taking it to the house for the second score of the day.
While Alex McPherson missed a long-shot 61-yard field goal attempt right before halftime, the special teams were a major difference-maker in the low-scoring affair.
Loser: Jo Simmons
Left tackle Jo Simmons didn't get the start on the blindside for the first time in his short Tigers tenure. Golesh and OL coach Tyler Hudanick went with Jacob Strand instead, since Strand's pass protection was at least serviceable.
When Simmons was in, he was frequently beaten and had quarterback Byrum Brown running for his life. It's clear that the most important pass-protecting position is far from settled.
Simmons didn't help his case against Vanderbilt.
Winner: Chas Nimrod
USF transfer receiver Chas Nimrod was responsible for one of two offensive touchdowns for the orange and blue, hauling in a 33-yard touchdown catch with 7:32 left in the first quarter for the team's first score.
Nimrod tied Keshaun Singleton for the most catches (five) but paced the room with 52 receiving yards.
Nimrod continues to pace right behind Singleton for the receiving lead at Auburn this season.
Loser: DJ Durkin
There were two stats that paint a somewhat ugly picture for DJ Durkin's defensive play-calling despite holding the Commodores to just one offensive touchdown.
Vanderbilt's offense was 4/5 on fourth downs, and had possession for 37:32 of the game's 60 minutes.
Durkin got away with that against a true freshman quarterback in his first road start. Those are not good signs for the rest of the SEC slate, though.
Winner: Xavier Atkins
Will linebacker Xavier Atkins, a regular in the winner's portion of this exercise, had eight tackles, three tackles for loss, and a sack on Saturday afternoon.
Atkins left for the locker room at one point, so that nothing serious was the result is, in and of itself, a major win.
Loser: Bryson Washington
The Baylor transfer Bryson Washington struggled to generate much push on the ground against the Commodores' defensive front, turning his seven carries into just 12 rushing yards.
The majority of Washington's yardage this season came against Southern Miss in Week 2. Otherwise, he has just 27 yards on 11 carries against Power 4 opponents.
As Golesh and Co. continue to figure out the best running backs to deploy in their committee, Washington's early-season tape isn't inspiring much confidence.
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