By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- When your mindset is to score every time you touch the ball - and Tre Mason said that's the plan - it seems as if sometimes you score so often and so fast you just overwhelm your opponent.
Auburn scored three times in less than 30 seconds, returned a punt for a touchdown and then a kickoff for the same and ran away from Tennessee 55-23 Saturday in Neyland Stadium.
"We're getting better every week," Mason said, "and we're showing it."
Tough to argue. Auburn improved to 9-1 overall and 5-1 in the Southeastern Conference, and made its final two games against rivals Georgia and Alabama something significant. Tennessee fell to 4-6 overall and 1-5 in the league.
Saturday's game was 6-6 and 13-13. Then it was suddenly 27-13, 41-20 and 55-23. "They're playing together," coach Gus Malzahn said. "They're showing some mental toughness. They're not panicking. They're believing."
By the time it was over, Auburn's 55 points were the most points in the 52-game series.
In this battle of first-year coaches and rebuilding teams, Malzahn left on top.
But could Malzahn have ever imagined a 9-1 start for Auburn after last year's trouble season? "I didn't let my mind go there. I was curious, just like our team was. They found a way. They bought in."
Quarterback Nick Marshall turned in a memorable performance, rushing for 214 yards and two touchdowns. He threw just seven times, completed three, but even one of those was for a touchdown. Tre Mason rushed for 117 yards and three touchdowns and went over 1,000 yards for the second consecutive season.
Chris Davis returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown and Corey Grant returned a kickoff 90 yards for a score.
Auburn had 479 yards of offense, a whopping 444 on the ground.
"When you run the football, you just keep doing it," Malzahn said. "I still believe we can throw the football. There's no doubt in my mind. But if you don't have to, it's a pretty good feeling when you can line up and run the football at will."
Auburn did for the second straight week. The Tigers threw it just nine times the week before in a 35-17 win over Arkansas. They threw just seven times in Knoxville, only three times after the first quarter.
"Just the same thing we did last week. I'm pretty use to it now," Marshall said.
The records tumbled, or were challenged, Saturday:
- Auburn's 312 combined return yards were the most in school history.
- Auburn's 44.85-yard average on seven kick and punt returns set an NCAA record.
- Marshall's 164 yards rushing in the first half were the fourth in a first half by any player in the first half in school history, and the fifth-highest total in any half.
- Tre Mason's three rushing touchdowns gave him seven in the last eight days.
- Mason is the sixth Auburn player to rush for 1,000 yards in consecutive season.
The Tigers struck fast in all sorts of ways, spending far less than a minute on all sorts of touchdowns.
Auburn barely threw for the second consecutive week, and, for the second consecutive week, it didn't matter.
There was no stopping Auburn once it got going. Three of the Tigers' first-half scoring drives took 30 seconds, 32 seconds and 37 seconds - and that doesn't count Davis' 85-yard punt return for a touchdown. Grant returned the second-half kickoff for his quick score.
Auburn averaged a whopping 12.2 yards per play in the first half.
It didn't exactly start that way. Tennessee kick a field goal on its first series. Auburn had an extra point block after its first touchdown. It was 6-6, then 13-13. But then Auburn scored two touchdowns in the next four minutes. And, after Jacques Smith returned an interception of a Marshall pass 18 yards for a touchdown, the Tigers answered in quick order.
Marshall did it on a 38-yard run with 51 seconds left in the first half with 51 seconds left in the first half.
For the record, the first-half scoring went like this for Auburn: a 25-yard touchdown pass from Marshall to C.J. Uzomah, a 13-yard run by Mason, an 85-yard punt return by Chris Davis, 7-yard run by Marshall and the 38-yard run by Marshall.
Auburn ended all doubt in the second half, first with Grant's kickoff return, then with Mason's third touchdown on a 4-yard run. Mason scored again early in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run. The Tigers and Vols tried to end it from there.
"We'll enjoy this one," Malzahn said. "We've got Georgia next week. That's the only thing on our mind. That's been our mindset all year. At the end of the year we'll be able to look back pat ourselves on the back when the time is right, but the time is not right right now."