The Auburn Tigers will open up November at home this weekend, hosting the Arkansas Razorbacks in one of their final SEC contests of the season. 

Head coach Alex Golesh is looking to get back on track after back-to-back losses to top teams in the country, playing a Razorbacks squad who has picked up one SEC victory this season: an away win over Vanderbilt back in October. 

Here are three of the main storylines that we’ll be keeping a close eye on in Saturday’s contest. 

Alex Golesh vs. Ryan Silverfield

While Golesh spent his three seasons as head coach at USF, he met former Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield each season. He never walked out of the game victorious. 

That could very well change on Saturday on the Plains. 

Auburn is a double-digit favorite to win the game, and although sometimes the odds don’t tell the story, the Tigers have one of their best chances all season to pull out an SEC win over an Arkansas team that hasn’t met the moment in the first season under Silverfield. However, a lot can happen in 60 minutes. 

The home-field advantage will be critical, as well as all three phases, to see if the Tigers can meet that expectation and get Golesh his first win over Silverfield. 

Four Quarters of Defense

In the loss to LSU, Auburn allowed 31 first-half points giving it a large deficit going into the break. Last weekend, the loss to Ole Miss saw the Tigers give up 28 unanswered points to close out the contest. 

Golesh, as well as the rest of the defense, are looking to make it a full four-quarter fight on that side of the ball to back the coaching of DJ Durkin. 

Fortunately, it’s against an Arkansas team that only averages 16.4 points per game in conference play this season, which is last in the SEC so far. If Auburn is able to get out early, playing the type of offense that it saw in the win over Georgia, Golesh and the group should be in good hands to stifle the Razorbacks at home. 

The crowd noise should be effective in doing so as well. 

Run Game Answers

Auburn continues to shuffle the offensive line, and although it shows it being effective at times, other instances see it struggle. 

In the loss to the Rebels, the Tigers only ran for 68 yards. The LSU game only featured 67 yards on the ground. Golesh has made it a must-have in his offenses to have a ground game to open up the pass, and Auburn hasn’t been able to do that at times during its losses. 

If the Tigers are able to do it against Arkansas, especially based on who potentially is the most important contributor of the backfield, will be pivotal going forward to finishing the season strong. 

Kickoff from Jordan-Hare Stadium is set for 11:45 central, with the game being broadcast on the SEC Network.