AUBURN, Ala. – Jackson Arnold accounted for three touchdowns and the Tigers forced two turnovers to lead No. 24 Auburn to a 31-15 Homecoming victory over South Alabama Saturday at sold-out Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“There’s things we’ve got to go improve on for sure but the bottom line is we’re 3-0 headed into conference play,” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said. “We played 13 true or redshirt freshmen today. I think South Alabama is a solid football team. The goal today was to be 1-0 today and 3-0 headed into conference play. Our team achieved that. We're going to celebrate that and hopefully get some folks healthy, get some rest this weekend and get ready to open conference play."
Arnold rushed for 50 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries while completing 13 of 24 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown.
“I thought it was a pretty dang solid outing for him again,” Freeze said. “I thought we protected him fairly well, particularly those first few drives. The pocket seemed clean, so that’s good to see because we’re going to have to be balanced playing the teams we’re playing the next few weeks.”
Jeremiah Cobb logged his second straight 100-yard rushing game, totaling 119 yards on 19 carries with a touchdown, an average of 6.3 yards per attempt.
“He’s had to carry a lot of the load the last two weeks,” Freeze said. “He’s taking care of the ball, too. We didn’t have any on the ground today and that’s been a big point of emphasis.”
On the opening drive, Auburn went for it fourth-and-5 from South Alabama’s 46, moving the chains on Arnold’s 14-yard pass to Eric Singleton Jr., then scoring on the next play on Arnold’s 32-yard pass to Cam Coleman.
It was the first of three scoring drives of 10 plays or more for Auburn. South Alabama responded with a 29-yard field goal to cut Auburn’s lead to 7-3.
Late in the first quarter, Keyron Crawford made his first career interception, picking off a pass that deflected off a South Alabama receiver. Crawford continued his breakout season, adding two tackles for loss among his five tackles.
“You’re plus two on the turnover ratio, that’s always a positive,” Freeze said.
Capitalizing on Crawford’s takeaway, Auburn needed only five plays to take a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter on Arnold’s 6-yard touchdown run, his third rushing TD of the season.
After Auburn’s defense forced a three-and-out, Arnold connected with a leaping Horatio Fields for 14 yards on third-and-9 to set up Arnold’s second touchdown run, a 5-yarder that put the Tigers on top 21-3 with 9:48 remaining in in the second quarter.
South Alabama drove 75 yards and scored on Bishop Davenport’s 20-yard pass to Jeremy Scott, trimming the Tigers’ lead to 21-9 after a missed extra point attempt.
Auburn answered with its own 75-yard drive, converting three third downs on a 14-play march that ended with Cobb’s 2-yard touchdown run, giving the Tigers a 28-9 lead with 40 seconds remaining in the first half. The Tigers were 7-for-9 on third down in the first two quarters.
”Offensively, the first five or six drives were really good,” Freeze said.
South Alabama opened the third quarter with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, scoring on Davenport’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Devin Voisin before the Jags missed a second extra point attempt, cutting Auburn’s lead to 28-15.
“We’ve got to get off the field better on defense, “Freeze said. “They ran the ball effectively on us which kept us on our heels a little bit. That’s not normal for our defense so you’ve got to give South Alabama some of that credit, too.”
Auburn held the ball for the next 8 minutes and 34 seconds, taking a 31-15 advantage on Alex McPherson’s 34-yard field goal with 1:15 to play in the third quarter.
South Alabama drove to Auburn’s 17-yard line, but on third-and-8, Jared Smith forced a fumble that Xavier Atkins recovered for the Tigers’ second takeaway.
Auburn erased another scoring threat in the fourth quarter, stopping the Jags on fourth down after a 15-play drive.
Kaleb Harris led Auburn with eight tackles, all of them solos including a tackle for loss.
Auburn (3-0) kicks off Southeastern Conference play next Saturday at No. 13 Oklahoma (3-0) at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC, the first of four straight ranked opponents.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer