AUBURN, Ala. – Saturday's win might have been for the seniors, but the Auburn freshmen certainly made their presence felt in the 53-0 rout of Liberty.
Wide receiver Seth Williams recorded his first 100-yard receiving game and caught his fifth touchdown of the season. Running back Shaun Shivers scored his third rushing touchdown of the season on a 25-yard scamper midway through the third quarter. And safety Smoke Monday hauled in his first career interception as a member of the Auburn Tigers.
"We wanted to send the seniors out right because they worked hard their four years here, some of them five," Williams said. "We just had to play hard and get everybody on the field, especially the seniors because they put in so much work for Auburn. We just wanted to let them go out right."
Williams earned the start Saturday and led the Tigers with five catches for 109 yards. He's now second on the team with 479 yards receiving, and he ranks third all-time among Auburn freshman receivers – passing Robert Baker (370 in 1995) and Courtney Taylor (379 in 2003) during Saturday's game.
The touchdown grab came a week after Williams dropped a potential touchdown at Georgia, and he wasn't about to drop another one. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound freshman raced past his defender and laid out full-extension in the end zone to catch the 45-yard toss from quarterback Jarrett Stidham. He and Stidham have now hooked up for a team-high five touchdowns together this season.
"He's continuing to improve every single week," Stidham said. "And that's what's you want to see, especially out of a young guy like him. You can't really ask much more of him. He's doing his job to a high level, and he's continuing to get better, which is really good."
"It's incredible," added senior H-back Chandler Cox. "It's like having your own personalized player on Xbox or something. I wish I had his speed. I wish I could run and juke like he does. It's just incredible. It's fun to have a teammate like that."
Williams says his game-winning touchdown catch against Texas A&M earlier this month remains the best catch he's made at Auburn so far but argues that there's more to come.
"I think I can get a couple more before I leave here," he said.
Fellow freshman Anthony Schwartz had his long catch overturned by officials Saturday, but he did rush for 37 yards on four carries. And his lone reception for four yards pushed him into seventh all-time among Auburn freshman receivers with 297 receiving yards on the season.
At running back, no freshman received more than 10 carries in Saturday's win, but the trio of Shivers, JaTarvious Whitlow and Asa Martin all finished with 40 or more yards rushing. Shivers ran for 45 yards and the touchdown on just six carries. And it was the first extended action for Martin, who had just three carries coming in, and he responded with 10 carries for 44 yards.
It's one thing to play well in a blowout win over Liberty, but how they perform next week on the road at No. 1 Alabama will go a long way in helping Auburn pull off the upset.
"It's going to be a good game," Williams said. "I know the intensity is going to be up. I'm just ready to play in it."
"Him, along with the rest of the guys, we know what this game means for this program," Stidham said. "For the tradition of Auburn. I don't know if he knows quite what to expect yet just because he's never played in it, but it's going to be a fun one. I know we're all going to be looking forward to it."
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf
