Young receivers stepping up for Auburn
Auburn (3-2, 2-1) didn’t celebrate quarterback Robby Ashford’s 20th birthday with a victory. The Tigers blew a 17-0 lead during Saturday’s 21-17 loss against LSU.
Moral victories don’t exist in the Southeastern Conference, especially when head coach Bryan Harsin’s seat is hotter than fish grease. As difficult as it was to lose after allowing 21 unanswered points, there was positivity in Ashford connecting with his wide receivers.
Ashford quickly broke the four-game streak of Auburn not having a touchdown pass to a wide receiver on the game’s first drive. He rolled out as the pocket broke down to throw a laser to Ja’Varrius Johnson for 53 yards.
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“You want to be able to run it and throw it. And be able to move the ball down the field, because a lot of those big plays came in the passing game,” Harsin said. “That’s where our chunk yardage was in the passing game. And that was good for us. And you know, to move the ball down the field, be explosive, get into better field position, you’ve got to do that. And I thought we did some of those things well tonight.”
Camden Brown caught his first career touchdown pass on an 18-yard throw in the end zone from Ashford. Earlier in the week, Ashford was asked about the lack of production from the wide receivers.
We’ve got dogs in that room, and we haven’t been able to show it as much, Ashford said. We’ve got a lot of ballers, and they’re just waiting to pop out. I think they will really soon.
Koy Moore had a 33-yard reception against his former team. Moore finished the game with four catches for 55 yards. It was the second game when Moore had multiple catches.
Omari Kelly had a big 25-yard catch in the second half. The freshman is one of several receivers developing chemistry with Ashford this season.
Ashford spread the ball while throwing for 337 yards against LSU. Moore, Kelly, Brown, and Johnson each caught passes. Ashford also had completions to running backs Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter. Tight ends John Samuel Shenker, and Tyler Fromm caught balls from Ashford.
Auburn ran several four, and five wide receiver sets against LSU. The Tigers successfully got the ball to its wide receivers versus LSU in ways they hadn’t this season. Auburn hopes to see more when the team plays Georgia this weekend.
“Our young wide receivers have been thrust into playing, Omari Kelly has a big catch, and Camden Brown has a big catch. Var had a couple of big catches in there as well,” Harsin said. “Those things were good. That was encouraging to see some young players step up and do some things on the perimeter.”
“We obviously have to be better than that going into this game and every game moving forward because we weren’t good enough to win the football game, but overall, there were some positive things in the pass game that I thought helped us.”
Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group.