AUBURN, Ala. – It would have been tempting for the 2010 Auburn Tigers to mail it in against Chattanooga on Nov. 6 on Homecoming.
It was, after all, their 10th game in 10 weeks, and the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry vs. Georgia loomed the following week.
Instead, Auburn quickly took care of business against an overmatched opponent, outscoring the Moccasins 27-0 in the first quarter en route to a 62-24 victory that left Auburn 10-0 for the fourth time in program history.
Piling up 628 yards of total offense, Auburn rushed for 303 yards and passed for 325.
Cam Newton had already done it all that season, but against Chattanooga, the future Heisman Trophy winner accomplished something new: his first 300-yard passing game. Newton completed 15 of 21 passes for four touchdowns and 317 yards, an average of 21.1 yards per completion.
"We had an excellent week of practice in preparing for this team and Coach Malzahn and the entire offensive coaching staff prepared us for this game," Newton said. "We exploited the weakness of their defense. Those are the numbers that we are capable of producing."
The backups, walk-ons and scout teamers got to play in the fourth quarter, always a morale builder.
With the win, Auburn climbed a spot to No. 2 in the AP poll and quickly turned its attention to the battle with the Bulldogs.IMPACT PLAYER: TERRELL ZACHERYOf Newton's 15 completions against Chattanooga nearly half of them went to Terrell Zachery. Darvin Adams led Auburn's 2010 receiving corps with 52 receptions for 963 yards, but Cam had other talented options in Zachery, Emory Blake and Kodi Burns, along with tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen and running back Mario Fannin.
T-Zac, as teammates and Auburn fans called him, made seven receptions for 148 yards and an 80-yard touchdown against Chattanooga, foreshadowing a 70-yard TD that would launch Auburn's second half comeback in the Iron Bowl three weeks later.
"It was a slip screen. I went out and came back in and I was wide open," Zachery said. "Everyone made the big blocks, including Lee Ziemba and Darvin Adams and I just ran down the field."Terrell Zachery Tennessee Chattanooga vs Auburn Football Nov. 6, 2010 in Auburn, Ala.Todd Van Emst
PLAY OF THE GAME: TWO PLAYS, SIX POINTSAuburn came out throwing, with Zachery gaining 32 yards on a screen on Auburn's first play from scrimmage.
From Chattanooga's 30, Newton pump faked and threw down the near sideline to Darvin Adams for the first of seven Auburn touchdowns.
Thirty seconds in, the tone had been set. There would be no letdown on this day.KEY STAT: AUBURN PASS DEFENSE HOLDS CHATTANOOGA TO 5.4 YARDS PER ATTEMPTConcluding they had little chance of finding success by running against Auburn, the Moccasins came out firing, attempting 43 passes.
The Tigers limited their opponent to 23 completions, a 53.4 percent clip. While the Mocs found some success in the air, Auburn's pass defense kept the top on the coverage, holding Chattanooga to 5.4 yards per attempt, a number defensive coordinators will gladly take every Saturday.IN THEIR OWN WORDS"Another great win. We look at every week and wins are hard to come by so we just feel very lucky. We did about what we needed to do today. Sometimes in the game, we got a little bit sloppy I thought, certainly off some special teams units, but a lot of different mixture of young guys in there and not a lot of continuity there in certain parts of the game. We came out fast. We did what we needed to do both offensively and defensively. It was another great win. We are very fortunate that we got out of the game very healthy it seems like. We will know more tomorrow with that. Again, just a great win, and we are happy to be 10-0." – Gene Chizik
"This week was big. We went into the week just trying to make sure we came out of this game a better team, especially with the games we have coming up in the next few weeks. It is going to be a big part of our season. The rest we got today really helps us out. We get the mental reps instead of being out there physically. It is going to take complete focus, sacrifice and the little things to come out on top." – Antoine Carter
"These next two games are going to be very big games, especially the Georgia game, for me personally. Then you have Alabama, which speaks for itself. We have to make sure we go out there and get after it every day in practice. These next two games will tell us a lot about our team." – Mario Fannin
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer