3 Storylines I'm Watching During Auburn's Contest With Vanderbilt – si.com

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The Auburn Tigers have an opportunity to get back on track on Saturday afternoon, facing the Vanderbilt Commodores in their second SEC contest of the season. 
Coming off a close loss to Florida, where the Tigers were playing catch-up for a majority of the game, head coach Alex Golesh will put that behind his group ahead of a chance to pick up his first conference win since taking the job last winter. 
Going into that contest, here are three things I’ll be keeping an eye on throughout the game. 
Last season, when Hugh Freeze was fired, defensive coordinator DJ Durkin took over as the interim head coach. While Auburn’s offense sputtered out often, its defense kept it in games. 
Fast forward a year, and Auburn’s defense is last in the SEC in yards allowed at 384 yards per game. Will that change against the Commodores on Saturday?
In the loss to the Gators, the Tigers allowed 495 yards and only one turnover, seeing Florida convert just under half of its third-down conversions. Going against a Vanderbilt team that only records 381 yards per game is an opportunity for Durkin’s group to take over completely in this game. 
And it starts with my next point. 
The No. 1 quarterback in the 2026 class, Jared Curtis, flipped his decision from Georgia to Vanderbilt late in the cycle. Now, he will be making his first away start of his young career on Saturday. 
He finished with 277 yards, three passing touchdowns and 62 rushing yards, being an all-around threat for NC State in the Commodores' miraculous win last weekend in Nashville. Instead of being at home, though, he will go out in front of more than 88,000 fans donning Auburn Blue and Orange instead of black and gold. 
Like I said earlier, if Durkin can get the true freshman unsettled early, perhaps even a turnover in the first quarter, that will set the stage for an Auburn win by the end of the night. However, if the opposite happens, and Curtis shows off the five-star ability he came out of high school with, it could be an ugly game that the Tigers would have to find several ways to win. 
Going to the other quarterback now, Byrum Brown will be the key piece in Auburn’s offense once again, but the ground game will be just as important. 
The Tigers couldn’t get going through the run game last weekend, only recording 102 rushing yards, and 65 were recorded by Brown himself. Especially against a Commodore defense that has allowed 108 yards per game, which is ninth in the SEC, Golesh will have a chance to get it going on Saturday. 
Whether it’s starter Jeremiah Cobb, sophomore Omar Mabson II, or the transfer duo of Nykahi Davenport and Bryson Washington, somebody has to get going rushing-wise for Auburn, and Golesh will have to gauge that over the course of the contest. 
If the Tigers get it going, though, that’s great news while entering their toughest stretch of the season to begin October. 
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Griffin is a communications major who was the Sports Editor for The Tiger at Clemson University. He led a team of 20+ reporters after working his way up through the ranks as a staff writer, sideline reporter, and assistant sports editor.
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