Auburn vs. Ole Miss
Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn and Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze talk before the game Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)
AUBURN, Alabama -- Tonight might provide the first de facto elimination game in the College Football Playoff era.
Then again, it might not when No. 3 Auburn and No. 4 Ole Miss face off tonight (6 p.m., ESPN) at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Either way, the importance is not lost on either as Auburn's high-power offense faces the nation's best defense.
The challenge from Auburn coaches the last few weeks has been simple: get better each week. It may sound like coachspeak, but the approach worked to near perfection last season for the Tigers, whose offense developed an identity, picked up speed and bowled through teams in the last half of the schedule.
"That's been the plan from Day 1," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "We're going to need to have that happen. We're playing, really, the meat of our schedule now with three Top 10 teams on the road, which I don't know another team in the country that's doing that."
Auburn (6-1, 3-1 SEC) didn't fare so well the last time it faced a top 10 team on the road. The Tigers woke up on a Saturday morning three weeks ago to a nightmare: two turnovers on the first two offensive plays and an early 21-0 deficit. Auburn couldn't catch up and Mississippi State won 38-23 in Starkville.
Malzahn has stressed the importance of ball security to his team this week. After all, Ole Miss (7-1, 4-1) is the best at forcing turnovers with 24, including 17 interceptions. The Rebels only allow 10.5 points per game, the best mark in the nation, and teams have averaged only 118 yards per game on the ground -- nearly 280 yards less than the season-high 395 Auburn chewed up last week in a 42-35 victory against South Carolina.
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The game also turns friends into foes. Malzahn and Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze have been friends since the early 2000s, when Freeze inquired about Malzahn's old job at a high school in Arkansas. Ten years later, the former high school coaches face off in a top-4 matchup in college football.
Strange? Sure. But they're not worried about their friendship on game day.
"In some ways it's so much better for us because of Gus and Hugh being close," Ole Miss defensive coordinator Dave Wommack said. "They share thoughts and ideas -- or at least they used to -- and I'm sure they study each other's tape."
Still, the sharing of ideas should be considered a stalemate. After all, Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson picked former Ole Miss staffer Ryan Aplin's brain this week, too.
Auburn knocked off Ole Miss 30-22 last season in a game that ended with a season-high six sacks for the Tigers and quarterback Nick Marshall's breakout game as a dual-threat option on the ground and through the air.
Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace's topsy-turvy play is a storyline worth watching. He's in a slump of sorts heading into the game after failing to complete 50 percent of his passes over the last two games. Earlier this week he questioned the coaches' lack of aggressive play calling on first downs.
Auburn frustrated Wallace last season, and ended the Rebels' rally attempt with a game-sealing sack. But that's where the problem lies for Auburn: the Tigers have struggled with their pass rush in 2014, generating only 6.5 sacks from the defensive line through seven games.
"Now, we had some pass rush last year, and we got him on the ground five to six times," Johnson said. "But if we don't generate something this year it's going to be completely different."
Ole Miss has its issues and so does Auburn.
Elimination game or not, the Rebels and Tigers know a win would provide a much-needed spark heading into the final stretch of the race in the SEC West.