The Auburn Tigers, who are now 4-4 after back-to-back losses to LSU and Ole Miss, are looking for a rebound game this weekend against the Arkansas Razorbacks, who have struggled this season. The Tigers are early favorites, boasting an 80.4% chance to win, but the Razorbacks are not looking to make anything easy for Alex Golesh and company.

On Wednesday, Arkansas’ Cam Settles, a running back, and Bradley Shaw, a linebacker, answered media questions about their view of the Tigers ahead of their Saturday matchup in Jordan-Hare Stadium. 

“I see a lot of moving pieces on [Auburn’s] defense,” Settles said. “It’s definitely a similar structure that we’ve seen before, so we gotta build off that and make those pieces work… I feel like they bring some twists, they bring a lot of game, linebackers blitz and they bring a lot to the table. It’s gonna come down to us being disciplined up front.”

The Tigers have struggled to defend effective rushers this season, from Jadan Baugh to DeSean Bishop and beyond, earning them a spot as the SEC’s second-worst rushing defense by total yards per game, only behind (ironically) Arkansas. 

Settles is part of a three-headed running back attack that also includes Sutton Smith and Braylen Russell, though the latter of that group has recently missed time due to injury, so the weight of the Tigers’ defense will fall more squarely on Settles and Smith, who will look to find and exploit the gaps left by the Tigers’ defense.

Defensively, Bradley Shaw was clear that stopping Auburn starts with two key aspects: containing Byrum Brown and winning the turnover battle.

“I feel like it’s really important to keep him in the box,” he said, “because he can do some amazing things with his legs. He’s a great runner outside the box, but if we keep him contained, I feel like we do a pretty good job… It’s very, very important to us to get the ball back to our offense.”

Auburn has been relatively sure-handed in the turnover game over the last few weeks, as barring a pair of rogue fumbles against Ole Miss last week, the Tigers have not turned over the ball since the bye week and are looking to get back on track this week.

The Tigers and Razorbacks, both hungry for an SEC win after their struggles over the last two weeks, are set to square off this Saturday at 11:45 a.m. CT in a game that will be broadcast on SEC Network.