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5 thoughts after film: Auburn beats Arkansas at home
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- 5 thoughts after film: Auburn beats Arkansas at home
Alex Golesh was stone faced. If anything, there was a hint of concern in his expression. Maybe it was just the sun in his eyes.
Alex McPherson was lining up for a 43-yard field goal to give Auburn the lead with 33 seconds left in the game. McPherson doinked an extra point off the left upright earlier in the game and this kick was inches away from doing the same.
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Instead, it crept inside the post, eliciting celebrations from Auburn's sideline and relief from Golesh. Auburn won 26-23 , and most importantly finished a game strong.
Only beating a team of Arkansas' caliber by three points is hardly worth celebrating. But as Golesh tries to implement his culture on the Plains, those kinds of finishes are what he wants to see.
With that said, here are five final thoughts on Saturday's game after re-watching it.
A lot of players got opportunities
At this point in the season, why not? Auburn still has a lot to play for as it looks to reach a bowl game, but it has little to lose when it comes to giving more players, particularly underclassmen, opportunities.
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Against Arkansas, 25 Auburn players played at least one snap on defense, that's the most in the Tigers' eight Power Four games this season. Three true freshmen played on defense, with linebacker Shadarius Toodle having the biggest day.
AUBURN, AL - NOVEMBER 07 - Auburn Linebacker Shadarius Toodle (#24) during the game between the Auburn Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, AL on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026.Photo by Bryce Mitchell/Auburn TigersBryce Mitchell/Auburn Tigers
His playing time came out of necessity. Bryce Deas is set to miss the rest of the season after having surgery on Friday and De'Marcus Riddick injured his ankle in the first quarter of Saturday's game.
Toodle finished the game with 11 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks. If he wasn't the best player on the field, he was certainly the most disruptive. Auburn has been looking for a playmaker on defense since Xavier Atkins' dismissal, and Toodle showed that he's capable of being that on Saturday.
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On offense, true freshmen Wilson Zierer, DeShawn Spencer and Brian Williams Jr. all played significant snaps. Even sophomore South Florida transfer Kory Pettigrew found his way onto the field for four snaps.
It showed that this staff is willing to try things and see what they have in younger players. In a lot of cases, those players are taking advantage of the opportunities.
Sophomore Blake Woodby looked like Auburn's best defensive back. Toodle was the player of the game. Spencer and Zierer continue to look like players that the offense can be built around past this season.
Those four players and others have three regular season games left to show their value before college football free agency begins. Saturday gave us a glimpse of who Golesh wants to build around.
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The offensive improvement in the second half
Slow starts have been the norm for Auburn this season, but Saturday's may have been the worst, considering the opponent. At the end of the first quarter, Auburn had 15 yards of total offense on 14 plays. Before the nine-play, 57-yard field goal drive to close the half, the Tigers averaged fewer than two yards per play.
When dissecting what went wrong in the first half, the film suggests it came down to a handful of mistakes. There were a number of plays that took the offense out of rhythm, which is what the group relies on.
Auburn was moving the ball on its first drive of the second quarter before a holding penalty on Kenneth McManus IV killed the drive. It put the offense behind the chains and took the group out of rhythm. The same thing happened on the very next drive, and the Tigers punted both times.
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On the second one, Byrum Brown made a great play to find an open Jonathan Echols on the scramble drill, but Echols dropped the ball. If he caught it, there was enough space for him to get a first down and stroll into Arkansas territory.
After AnQuon Fegans gave Auburn momentum later in the first half with his interception, Brown was short on a throw to wide open Jake Johnson on first down. That could have been a chunk play if he connected with his target.
Those misfires didn't happen as often in the second half, which allowed the offense to stay in rhythm. Auburn also put an emphasis on Brown's legs, which won the Tigers the game in the fourth quarter.
Against defenses that have great athletes, Auburn may not have much to offer offensively. Against teams like Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Mississippi State, the Tigers simply need to avoid the simple mistakes to have success.
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More aggressive on defense
In Auburn's losses to LSU and Ole Miss, the defense got walked down and picked apart. Both of those teams have great offenses, but Auburn chose to sit back defensively rather than be aggressive the majority of the time in those games.
That seemed to change against Arkansas. It should be noted that the Razorbacks are considerably worse offensively than the last two teams Auburn played. Can also be said that the Tigers' defense was still far from perfect on Saturday.
The biggest difference, though, was how the staff seemed to approach the gameplan. There were fewer three-man rushes and soft coverages and that seemed to affect Arkansas quarterback KJ Jackson.
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He finished the game with 180 yards, one touchdown and one interception on 14-for-30 passing. That's the worst performance by a quarterback Auburn has faced since Tennessee used two different signal callers against the Tigers in early October.
Auburn sacked Jackson six times and finished the game with 12 tackles for loss. Both of those numbers were season highs for the Tigers' defense.
AUBURN, AL - NOVEMBER 07 - Auburn Linebacker Michael Matthews-Canty (#51) during the game between the Auburn Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, AL on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026.Photo by Zach Bland/Auburn TigersZach Bland/Auburn Tigers
Defensive coordinator DJ Durkin seemed more comfortable sending pressure on critical downs, especially late in the game. Against a mediocre at best offensive line, Auburn's pass rushers won enough one-on-one matchups to affect the game.
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Da'Shawn Womack, who has struggled this year, played his best game of the season, finishing with five pressures, per PFF. To give an idea of how much more aggressive Auburn was, Womack played nine more pass rush snaps in this game than any other game this season.
Darrion Smith, a sophomore, may be the Tigers' best pure pass rusher, as he finished with three pressures and combined with Cody Sigler for a sack in the fourth quarter. Sigler continues to be the biggest difference maker on the interior, totaling four pressures, two tackles for loss and the half sack.
The good and bad of Byrum Brown
In this space last week , we discussed the idea of Auburn making a quarterback change. We didn't suggest that it was being considered, but we explored the case for giving backup signal caller Tristan Ti'a an opportunity.
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Brown showed on Saturday why that's not being considered. He wasn't perfect by any means, but he was ultimately the reason why Auburn came back and won that game.
Nine games into the season, it's clear who and what Brown is as a player. He's not going to sit in the pocket and pick teams apart in the passing game. Even in what felt like a better game through the air, he finished with just 180 yards on 23-for-34 passing.
Brown, however, is capable of making plays that nobody else on the roster can make. There were plenty of those on Saturday, but his fourth quarter touchdown pass to Keshaun Singleton might have been the best example.
He broke out of a sack, rolled to his right and hit Singleton in the endzone. The pressure on that play wasn't the offensive line's fault, but behind a shaky offensive line, it helps to have a quarterback with elite escapability.
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Brown's hesitancy can be blamed for many of the sacks this season, but how many sacks has he also avoided with his quickness. If a less athletic or strong quarterback was Auburn's starter, how many sacks would the Tigers have allowed.
Golesh also trusts Brown , and the bad performances at times this season didn't change that. He's an extension of Golesh on the field with his knowledge of the offense and an extension off the field with how his way of thinking is similar to Golesh's.
As Golesh continues to cement his culture in Year 1, that's who he wants to be the team's leader.
The offensive line's performance
Auburn knows what it has on the offensive line at this point in the season. The unit is not particularly talented or athletic, but the staff has tried numerous things to get the most out of the group.
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It did that again on Saturday when it trotted out its fifth different starting combination up front. This time, Jacob Strand replaced Wilson Zierer at right tackle while the rest of the starting group remained the same as it was last week.
Jacobe' Ward, however, who was making his second career start, was replaced early on by Cole Skinner at right guard. Ward received a pass blocking grade of zero by PFF, but he didn't seem to have any noticeably awful reps while he was on the field.
Zierer also made his way back onto the field after Strand left with an injury. He was particularly solid when he came into the game, not allowing a single pressure during the game, per PFF.
As a group, the offensive line had a decent afternoon, albeit against a poor defensive front. Brown was sacked just once, a play where Auburn failed to pick up a twist, but the Razorbacks did finish with eight tackles for loss.
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The Tigers struggled to get a push in the run game early on, but had success on the ground once they started calling designed run plays for Brown.
You could view the offensive line's performance either as progress or doing what was expected against a bad team. Either way, it was good enough to pick up a much-needed win.
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