Auburn to play at No. 19 Missouri desperate for a win after three straight SEC losses
FILE – Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze and Missouri counterpart Eli Drinkwitz got to know each other years ago through Gus Malzahn, who served as a mentor of sorts to both of them, and they have only grown closer now that they’re together in the SEC.
“We gravitate to one another in our lives, too, when we are at common places,” Freeze explained, “whether it’s SEC meetings or whether it’s the Peach Bowl Classic. I think we’re made of a similar mindset of what coaching should be about, the bigger picture of trying to keep the impacting of others as important as the wins and losses.”
That’s some altruistic stuff. But that coaching bond, and shared belief, might be why Drinkwitz and No. 19 Missouri aren’t making too much of some bulletin-board material that Freeze unwittingly provided this week.
He intended to compliment Drinkwitz but it amounted to a swipe at the program: “I know everybody has their rankings of coaches and it’s based on, to me, the better talent you have the better coach you are,” Freeze said. “To me, some of the better jobs are done with those lesser rosters in recruiting.”
Well, that lesser roster at Missouri (5-1, 1-1) has only lost at Texas A&M this season, and still expects to be playing for an SEC title and a spot in the College Football Playoff. Missouri bounced back from that defeat by routing UMass last week.
Meanwhile, Auburn (2-4, 0-3) has lost three straight conference games and needs a win to save its season.
It will have a chance against Missouri on Saturday at Faurot Field.
“There’s really only one glaring weakness that they’ve had, and it shows up in all their losses, which is turnovers,” Drinkwitz said. “Other than that, they’ve played well enough to win football games, and I think they are very talented on both sides of the ball.’”
That’s not exactly bulletin-board stuff coming from the other side.
“It’s really going to be a challenge for us this week,” Drinkwitz continued. “It’s really about our consistency and preparation, our urgency, our daily progress in trying to improve our fundamentals, our ability to play fast and aggressive in the face of uncertainty of what they’re going to do.”
Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith has become Payton Thorne’s go-to receiver at Auburn, catching 24 passes for 510 yards and six touchdowns. Malcolm Simmons has 13 catches for 151 yards over the past three games. Prized freshman Cam Coleman has not caught a touchdown pass since the Tigers’ season-opener.
The game features some of the SEC’s best running backs in Auburn’s Jarquez Hunter and Missouri’s Marcus Carroll and Nate Noel, though the latter has been battling an injury. Hunter is the league’s fifth-leading rusher and Noel is No. 6, while Carroll is averaging 4.8 yards per carry.
Kickoff is at 11AM CDT Saturday.
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