AUBURN, Ala. – Six hundred and seven days. That's how long it had been since Will Hastings had last scored a touchdown for Auburn.
That touchdown came against UCF in the 2018 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Hastings ran a wheel route and got behind the cornerback on the outside. However, when he caught the ball in the end zone, he immediately got popped by the safety that had come over.
On Saturday, the drought ended as Hastings found the end zone against Tulane on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Bo Nix. The best part? He avoided the big hit this time.
"It felt a lot better than the UCF one because I got slammed on that one," Hastings said. "But this one I was able to get in there and not get absolutely obliterated."
On the touchdown play, Hastings lined up in the slot on the left side. There was a single-high safety who started moving to the other side of the field when the ball was snapped, leaving the middle of the field wide open. Hastings knew then that the ball was likely coming his direction. The only person covering him was a linebacker.
Sure enough, Nix threw it to a wide-open Hastings in the middle of the field. The senior wide receiver caught it around the 14-yard line, and then it was a foot race between him and the cornerback to see who could reach the end zone first.
There was just problem. Hastings wasn't faster. So he stopped at the 5, spun out of the tackle and accelerated across the goal line for the touchdown.
"The corner shaded toward me, and that's when I had to hit the spin move to get back to the other side of him," Hastings said. "Luckily I was fast enough to run it in. I shouldn't say fast enough because I'm not very fast. But I was quick enough to pick the speed back up and get in there.
"Really I didn't think I was going to make it. I thought I was get down at the one. So I was thankful that I got in there."
The spin move Hastings made caught some of his teammates by surprise.
"It was nice," Auburn cornerback Noah Igbinoghene said. "I didn't think he had that in him, to be honest with you. I really didn't."
"I didn't see it coming," added fellow wide receiver Sal Cannella. "Honestly, I thought he might have been down at the 1, but he had a little sauce to him. I was happy to see it. I love Will."
Hastings finished Saturday's game with five catches for 75 yards and a touchdown. The more impressive catch might have come earlier in the game when he flipped his head around and caught a 33-yard pass to move the chains on 3rd-and-10. Both catches, however, were evidence that Hastings is back to his old self again after two separate knee surgeries that cost him nearly all of last season.
"A lot of people don't see what those dudes go through every day," Cannella said. "All that rehab and just the fact that something like that happened, that just eats away at you – not being able to play.
"He's a competitor, too. He wants to be out there. And when he couldn't, I know that ate away at him and was really hurting him. Just the fact that he could be out there (Saturday), fully healthy, full confident and having a touchdown like that, I know that really hit home. That one felt good for him. It probably made him feel like he's back."