Hugh Freeze hopes his Auburn football team, particularly his receiving corps, learned the right lessons after a 48-14 blowout win over ULM on November 16. After all, the competition ratchets up significantly in Week 13 with Texas A&M coming to town for the final Tigers home game of the season.
“You hope that a day like today, with those young guys, gives them and Payton confidence that, ‘Hey man, Coach, we don’t really need to add a ton of other routes,’” Freeze said to reporters postgame in Week 12. “‘Let’s just keep doing what we’re doing, and we believe that we can win on these routes.’ That’s what you hope. Obviously, we’ll be playing a higher level of athlete next Saturday night. But it’s exciting to know that you can show them some proof. You see what your work has done in practice, and now you see it in a game.”
As The Montgomery Advertiser's Adam Cole notes, both Texas A&M and Alabama may as well be in a different league than the Warhawks secondary; even if ULM has done well against the offenses it has faced.
"The defenses Thorne and the Tigers are facing only get tougher. Not only are they filled with SEC talent, but both the Aggies and the Tide are top-20 teams nationally in interceptions, and each boasts a sub-60 opponent completion percentage, with Texas A&M being the sixth-best team in that category nationally," Cole wrote.
Auburn football could get emotional boost ahead for Texas A&M game
Even with the season practically over, Tiger fans still filled Jordan-Hare Stadium against a middling Sun Belt school. It may just mean more in the SEC, but it'll always mean even more than that in Auburn.
AU's Week 13 and Week 14 challenges are unique: two top-15 teams in the College Football Playoff. Certainly, though, their next two matchups aren't created equal.
Playing Alabama in Tuscaloosa is a challenge the Tigers haven't figured out since the "Camback" so it's safe to assume Auburn will have more than their fair share of difficulties in that one. AU can potentially play spoiler for Alabama's SEC Championship and College Football Playoff hopes, but that's going to be a practically impossible challenge the way the Crimson Tide are playing right now.
But Texas A&M is coming to town during the final home game for popular seniors like Jarquez Hunter and Eugene Asante. Emotions will be running high.
When that happens, voodoo sometimes follows at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers will be an underdog, but the Aggies are far from an insurmountable challenge given the circumstances.