While Auburn junior Jarquez Hunter knows playing running back requires patience, that’s something he’s had to work to develop as the season has unfolded.

“I remember (at) California, this guy was wide open and nothing was developing in front of him,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said of Hunter.

Auburn’s visit to Cal in Week 2 was the first time Hunter saw action after missing the season opener against UMass on Sept. 2. During that game on the west coast, Hunter rushed for just 53 yards on 11 attempts – good for an average of 4.8 yards per carry.

The next week, he took a step back against Samford with an 11-carry, 37-yard performance with a touchdown.

In Hunter’s first three SEC games against Texas A&M, Georgia and LSU, he combined for 128 rushing yards on 35 attempts and a combined two touchdowns.

It was beginning to feel like Hunter might never live up to the preseason hype that centered around him emerging as Auburn’s feature back after living in the shadows of Tank Bigsby in his first two seasons on The Plains.

“It was a rough start,” Hunter admitted of his slow start to the season. “But I just had to keep working at it, keep getting better on my part. In practice, I had to work on the little things.”

And one of those things was, ironically, learning how to do a bit less.

“I was just trying to being a hurry too much instead of being patient,” Hunter said.

In Auburn’s last two games against Mississippi State and Saturday’s 31-15 win over Vanderbilt, Hunter has started to see the fruits of his labor – or the lack thereof – pay off.

Hunter turned in Auburn’s first 100-plus-yard rushing performance of the season last week against Mississippi State with 144 yards on 17 carries. And it felt like that might be a tough act to follow as the Tigers marched into Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

But instead, Hunter one-upped it.

Auburn’s second offensive snap against Vanderbilt was an inside handoff to Hunter on 2nd-and-2.

Except Hunter wasn’t interested in stopping at the line to gain at the Auburn 35-yard line. Instead, he sprinted right past it en route to a 67-yard touchdown rush to give the Tigers an early 7-0 advantage.

Hunter says he knew he was gone and the sight of nothing but green AstroTurf between him and the end zone was enough to put a smile on his face.

“It warms my heart up to see open grass,” Hunter said after Saturday’s win.

Meanwhile, Hunter’s quick strike up the gut had his head coach smiling, too.

“As soon as that run hit — you just took the words right out of my mouth on the headset,” Freeze said when asked about Hunter’s patient running. “I said, ‘Cadillac, that’s as patient as I’ve seen him on inside zone.’ I do think that’s why he’s having more explosive runs the last few weeks.”

Hunter’s first 67-yard touchdown was the first of two explosive runs on the day for the junior ball carrier.

During Auburn’s third offensive possession, Hunter ripped off another one – this time from 56 yards out and for another score, giving the Tigers a 14-0 advantage over the Commodores in the first quarter.

Hunter finished the day with 183 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns on 19 carries, meaning he averaged just shy of 10 yards per attempt. And his big night couldn’t have come at a more convenient time for the Tigers.

After Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne and the Tigers’ offense seemed to have hit their stride in the passing game last week against Mississippi State, they couldn’t quite piece it together on Saturday afternoon in Nashville.

While the opportunities for explosive plays through the air were there, Auburn’s receivers struggled to haul in passes.

Omari Kelly dropped a shoo-in touchdown midway through the second quarter, leaving Thorne slapping at the AstroTurf in frustration.

Kelly’s drop was just one of five drops committed by Auburn’s receivers during Saturday’s game at Vanderbilt. He, Rivaldo Fairweather and Damari Alston each committed a drop, while Ja’Varrius Johnson committed a pair of drops.

“Sometimes you have those,” Freeze said. “But I felt like there were at least two touchdowns on dropped balls and other simple ones.”

So Saturday was a good day for Hunter to breakout.

By himself, Hunter was responsible for more than 45% of Auburn’s total offense and half of the Tigers’ scoring.

And Hunter believes he and the Tigers have more in the tank.

“I think we’re hitting our stride,” Hunter said. “We’ve been moving the ball. We’ve been running the ball. We’ve been catching the ball. I just think we’re getting our momentum. We’ve just got to keep going forward through the season.”

It just took a little patience to get to this point.