Auburn (3-5, 1-4) at Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3)

6:30 p.m. CDT Saturday (ESPN2)

Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi

1 TD pass is needed by Mississippi State QB Will Rogers to stand alone as the school’s career leader. Dak Prescott set the MSU career record with 70 TD passes during the 2012 through 2015 seasons. Rogers enters Saturday’s game with 70 career TD passes, and he got six of those last season in the Bulldogs’ 43-34 victory over Auburn.

1 Team in the nation has a worse turnover margin than Auburn this season. With 16 turnovers and six takeaways, the Tigers are at minus-10. Central Michigan has the worst mark in the nation at minus-11. Mississippi State has a plus-four turnover margin, with 14 takeaways and 10 turnovers.

MORE SEC FOOTBALL BY THE NUMBERS:

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2 Previous interim coaches in the SEC era for Auburn, which will play on Saturday under the direction of Carnell “Cadillac” Williams. Williams was elevated from running-backs coach after Bryan Harsin was fired on Monday. Harsin had a 9-12 overall record and a 4-9 mark in conference play. Harsin’s tenure was the shortest for a full-time Auburn coach in the SEC era. George Bohler went 3-11 in 1928 and 1929 before being replaced by Johnny Floyd for the final four games of Auburn’s 1929 campaign, four years before the SEC’s first season. In 1998, Bill Oliver took over for Terry Bowden and led Auburn through the final five games of the season. The Tigers defeated Louisiana Tech 32-17 in their first game under Oliver, who also beat Central Florida and lost to Arkansas, Georgia and Alabama. Kevin Steele finished the 2020 season for Gus Malzahn with a 35-19 loss to Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl.

3 First downs have been achieved by the Auburn offense via a penalty against the opponent’s defense. That’s two fewer than any other team in the nation has. Mississippi State has gained 19 first downs that way. Mississippi State has achieved 19 first downs through its opponents’ penalties.

3 Rushing yards are needed by Auburn QB Robby Ashford to become the 19th freshman in school history to reach 400. Two other current Tigers are on the list – RB Tank Bigsby, who had 834 rushing yards in 2020, and RB Jarquez Hunter, who had 593 rushing yards in 2021.

4 Opponents have scored at least 40 points against Auburn in 2022, the most in one season in the program’s history. Last week, Arkansas became the fourth in its 41-27 victory against Auburn, which allowed a third consecutive opponent to reach 40 points for the first time. Three opponents had scored 40 or more points against Auburn in 1948, 2011 and 2012. This season, Auburn lost to Penn State 41-12 on Sept. 17, 42-10 to Georgia on Oct. 8 and 48-34 to Ole Miss on Oct. 15 before last week’s setback against Arkansas. Auburn had had only two other instances in which it had allowed at least 40 points in back-to-back games – and only once in the same season. In 2001, Auburn defeated Louisiana Tech 48-41 on Oct. 20 and lost to Arkansas 42-17 on Oct. 27. Auburn ended the 1948 season with a 55-0 loss to Alabama and started the 1949 season with a 40-7 loss to Ole Miss. Mississippi State has scored 40 or more points in four games this season. The Bulldogs had their first 40-point game against Auburn since 1952 when they defeated the Tigers 43-34 last season.

4 Current Mississippi State players rank in the Bulldogs’ top 10 of career receptions. RB Jo’quavious Marks is second with 175 receptions, WR Austin Williams is seventh with 134, RB Dillon Johnson is eighth with 132 and WR Jaden Walley is 10th with 124.

4 Third downs have been converted into first downs in the fourth quarter by Auburn this season. Auburn’s conversion rate gets worse as the game goes on – 16-of-35 in the first quarter, 13-of-29 in the second quarter, 10-of-27 in the third quarter, 4-of-23 in the fourth quarter and 0-of-1 in overtime. The Tigers’ opponents have converted 24 percent of their first-quarter third downs into first downs, then have a 50 percent conversion rate in each of the next three quarters. Auburn has outscored its opponents 41-28 in the first quarter this season and has been outscored in each of the other periods.

5 Interceptions for Mississippi State CB Emmanuel Forbes this season, tied for the most in the nation. He joins Buffalo’s Marcus Fuqua, Utah’s Clark Phillips III, Nevada’s Bentlee Sanders and Wisconsin’s John Torchio as players with five interceptions in 2022. Auburn has two interceptions this season.

6 SEC players have scored at least 400 points after Auburn K Anders Carlson reached 403 in the Tigers’ previous game. Auburn’s Daniel Carlson holds the SEC record with 480 points from 2014 through 2017. The conference’s other 400-point scorers are former Georgia kickers Rodrigo Blankenship, Blair Walsh, Billy Bennett and Marshall Morgan.

10 Auburn players have had more rushing yards than RB Tank Bigsby, who moved into 11th place by passing Kerryon Johnson on the school’s all-time list in the Tigers’ previous game. With 2,521 rushing yards, Bigsby is 65 behind No. 10 Onterio McCalebb.

13 Victories, two losses and one tie for Auburn when playing on Nov. 5. The Tigers tied Tulane 6-6 in 1927 and lost to Villanova 25-12 in 1938 on that date. Since then, Auburn has won nine of its 10 Nov. 5 games, and the lone loss – a 27-13 setback against Mississippi State in 1977 – later became a forfeit victory for the Tigers, boosting the Nov. 5 record to 14-1-1.

31 Consecutive games with a reception for Mississippi State RB Jo’quavious Marks, who has caught a pass in every game in his college career. Marks has 175 receptions for 970 yards and three TDs.

47 Years since the previous time a former Auburn player served as the Tigers’ head coach. Carnell “Cadillac” Williams is working as Auburn’s interim head coach after the school fired Bryan Harsin on Monday. Williams will be the first former Auburn player to lead the school’s football team since Ralph “Shug” Jordan won a school-record 176 games from 1951 through 1975. Since Jordan’s last game, Auburn has had seven full-time and two other interim head coaches without any being an alumnus of the school. Williams played running back for Auburn from 2001 through 2004, when he scored a school-record 46 TDs and ran for 3,831 yards, which is second behind Bo Jackson’s 4,303 on the Tigers’ career rushing list.

62 Victories for Auburn, 30 victories for Mississippi State and three ties in the series. The official record is 65-28-2 because of penalties imposed on Mississippi State. The Tigers and Bulldogs have played annually since 1955.

68 Receptions for John Samuel Shenker, the most for a tight end in Auburn history. Cooper Wallace from 2002 through 2005 set the record for receiving yards by an Auburn tight end with 829. Shenker has 779 receiving yards in his career.

107 Passing yards are needed by Mississippi State QB Will Rogers to become the school’s career leader. Dak Prescott set the Bulldogs’ standard with 9,376 passing yards from 2012 through 2015.

276 Rushing yards for Arkansas in its 41-27 victory over Auburn last week. In this century, Auburn had not allowed more than 275 rushing yards in consecutive games until Georgia ran for 292 in a 42-10 victory on Oct. 8 and Ole Miss ran for 448 in a 48-34 victory on Oct. 15. Arkansas made it three games in a row. Since 2000, Auburn has a 2-18 record when allowing at least 275 rushing yards. Mississippi State has the least productive rushing attack in the SEC with an average of 89.1 yards per game this season.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.