Auburn (2-5, 0-4) at Kentucky (3-4, 1-4)
6:45 p.m. CDT Saturday (SEC Network)
Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky
1 Program has not received any SEC Player of the Week awards during the 2024 season – Auburn. The Tigers were left as the last team without an award when Florida RB Jadan Baugh won the SEC Freshman of the Week Award for Week 8 after scoring five TDs in the Gators’ 48-20 victory over Kentucky on Oct. 19. The SEC awards honors in six categories – Offensive Player, Defensive Player, Special Teams Player, Offensive Lineman, Defensive Lineman and Freshman of the Week. Tennessee and Texas are tied for the most weekly awards with seven apiece in 2024.
3 Consecutive seasons with seven losses for Auburn. The Tigers have never had four consecutive seasons with at least six losses in each, but they enter Saturday with a 2-5 record. Auburn went 6-7 in 2021, 5-7 in 2022 and 6-7 in 2023. Auburn has had two other streaks of three seasons with at least six losses – 1928 through 1930 and 1946 through 1948.
5 Punt returns have netted Auburn’s opponents minus-15 yards this season, the fewest in the nation. Kentucky has 52 yards on 10 punt returns this season.
5 Kickoffs have been returned for touchdowns by Kentucky WR Barion Brown, who broke the SEC career record with a 99-yard return in a 48-20 loss to Florida last week. Seven other SEC players have had four kickoff-return TDs – Tennessee’s Willie Gault, Arkansas’ Felix Jones, Georgia’s Brandon Boykin, Florida’s Andre Debose, Missouri’s Marcus Murphy, Tennessee’s Evan Berry and South Carolina’s Deebo Samuel.
9 Victories in 21 games for Bryan Harsin when he was fired from his job as Auburn’s coach during the 2022 season. Current coach Hugh Freeze enters his 21st game with the Tigers on Saturday with an 8-12 record. Harsin’s final game — Auburn’s 41-27 loss to Arkansas on Oct. 29, 2022 — was the Tigers’ fourth in a row and left the coach with a 4-9 SEC record. Auburn will enter Saturday’s game on a four-game losing streak with Freeze’s conference record at 3-9.
9 Consecutive victories for Auburn at Kentucky. The Tigers haven’t lost on the Wildcats’ home field since a 17-7 setback on Oct. 1, 1966. Since then, Auburn has won in Lexington in 1968, 1970, 1975, 1983, 1989, 1995, 2005, 2010 and 2015. During that span, Auburn also has a 10-1 home record against Kentucky, with the Wildcats’ only win over the Tigers in the previous 57 seasons coming 21-14 on Oct. 17, 2009.
10 Auburn players have caught TD passes this season, tied with BYU and Vanderbilt for the most in the nation. KeAndre Lambert-Smith has six TD receptions for Auburn this season, Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons have two apiece, and seven other players have one apiece – Camden Brown, Luke Deal, Rivaldo Fairweather, Jarquez Hunter, Sam Jackson, Micah Riley-Ducker and Perry Thompson.
10 More turnovers than takeaways for Auburn this season, the worst margin in the SEC by five. The Tigers have lost seven fumbles and nine interceptions while intercepting four of their opponents’ passes and recovering two of their opponents’ six fumbles. Kentucky has nine turnovers and eight takeaways this season.
11 Field-goal attempts without a miss for Kentucky K Alex Raynor. Only UAB’s Jonah Delange, who is 14-of-14, has more attempts without a miss in the nation. At 5-of-10, Auburn is one of the eight teams in the nation that has missed half or more of its field-goal attempts in 2024.
13 Auburn completions have gained at least 40 yards this season, three more than any other team in the nation except Ole Miss, which has 12. The Kentucky defense has allowed seven completions that have gained at least 40 yards, tied for the most in the SEC in 2024. Auburn WRs Cam Coleman and KeAndre Lambert-Smith have four receptions apiece that have gained at least 40 yards, and all of Lambert-Smith’s have gained at least 50 yards. Auburn is tied with Ole Miss, Oregon and UTEP for the most 50-or-more-yard completions in 2024 with six.
13 Victories without a loss for Auburn when it holds its opponent to 20 or fewer points and 19 losses without a victory for the Tigers when their opponent scores at least 21 points since the start of the 2022 season. Auburn has lost 22 games in a row in which its opponent scored at least 21 points, dating from a 38-23 victory over Arkansas on Oct. 16, 2021. Kentucky has averaged scoring 20.4 points per game and has scored 20 or fewer points in five of its seven contests this season.
27 Victories for Auburn, six victories for Kentucky and one tie in the Tigers-Wildcats series. The teams are meeting for the first time since Auburn opened the 2020 campaign with a 29-13 victory over Kentucky.
28 Consecutive games with at least one reception for Auburn WR Robert Lewis. All but the most recent seven of those games came with Lewis playing for Georgia State.
34 Rushing yards are needed by RB Jarquez Hunter to reach ninth in Auburn history. Hunter has 2,755 yards on 449 rushing attempts in his career. Brent Fullwood (1983-86) is No. 9 on Auburn’s career rushing list with 2,789 yards.
149 Games have been played by Auburn since it was most recently shut out, tied for the longest streak in school history. Auburn’s most recent shutout loss came 49-0 to Alabama on Nov. 17, 2012. Auburn’s original 149-game streak started with a 55-16 victory over Richmond on Oct. 4, 1980, and ended with a 17-0 loss to Alabama on Nov. 26, 1992. Auburn’s two scoring streaks are tied for the ninth-longest in SEC history.
338 Passing yards are needed by Auburn QB Peyton Thorne to reach 10,000 in his career. That’s also the number of passing yards that Thorne put up in his top game at Auburn in a 32-21 loss to Oklahoma on Sept. 28. Thorne got 6,493 of his passing yards in three seasons at Michigan State before joining the Tigers in 2023.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
