Auburn Football Three Keys: Tulane

Auburn faces Tulane on Saturday in Auburn. Here are your three keys to an Auburn win over Tulane.

By Steve Wright

It may be a little hyperbolic to suggest that the Tigers 27-21 win over Oregon on Saturday saved opening day for the SEC, but given some of the bad losses the conference took it was certainly more important and expected. While Auburn squeaked past their Pac-12 opponents, Tulane was busy crushing FIU 42-14.

Key 1 – Get on top early

Given some of the cupcakes that other SEC teams are playing this weekend, Auburn actually has something of a stiffer test in the form of the Green Wave. Coming down from a late – and heavily emotional – win over Oregon, this isn’t the ideal time to face a feisty team from the American Athletic Conference.

Tulane is a veteran team that has won six of its last seven games going back to 2018. The worst thing you can do against a team like that is let them stick around and think they have a chance.

Auburn needs to come out firing here, scoring two or three early scores without reply and ending this before it becomes a slog.

Key 2 – Stop the running attack

Tulane likes to move the ball on the ground. Quarterback Justin McMillan can air it out – he was 14-of-18 in the opener – but their bread and butter is an outstanding rushing attack. Tulane rushed for 350 yards and four scores against FIU, with four backs getting eight carries or more as their varied both the type of rush and the point of attack. Auburn has an outstanding defensive line, but that line cannot take Tulane lightly.

Key 3 – More consistency from Bo Nix

It is hard to fault a true freshman after said true freshman led a 15-point comeback against a ranked opponent in his very first game. Having said all that, Bo Nix needs to be more consistent with his passing here in his second start. Nix has a gunslinger mentality, one that is actually a decent fit for the Auburn system, but one that can (and will) cause issues if he can’t control it. The Oregon defensive front was very talented. Tulane is not in that same realm so it will be interesting to see how Nix performs with more time in the pocket and more space for his receivers to exploit.

Saturday‘s game kicks off at 6:30 PM CT (7:30 PM ET). Watch on the ESPN2 network.

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