For the final time of the 2023 season, Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers football team will take the field Saturday afternoon as they’re set to see the Maryland Terrapins in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl from Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.

Coming into the postseason matchup, both the Tigers and Terrapins sit at 6-6 on the year. However, when they hit the field Saturday, both teams will look wildly different as each will be without a handful of starters who chose to opt out of the bowl game.

For Maryland, its biggest hit comes from under center as Tualia Tagovailoa, the Terps’ starting quarterback and the Big 10′s leading passer, opted out. Meanwhile, Auburn will be dealing with a depleted defense as defensive backs DJ James and Nehemiah Pritchett opted out, as did defensive lineman Marcus Harris.

As such, both the Tigers and Terrapins will be seeing new faces get significant playing time on Saturday, which feels like a kickoff for the approaching 2024 season.

“It’s a different world now for me with the opt-outs and the transfer portal and things,” Freeze said during Friday afternoon’s press conference. “We’ll have a different team tomorrow than we had at the end of the season, but in some ways, that’s exciting to kind of see how they perform.”

Auburn and Maryland are set to kick off at 1 p.m. Follow here for updates:

12:30 p.m. | Pregame

Both teams have taken the field for pregame warmups, giving us a final look at who might be unavailable.

Here’s a look at Auburn’s list of unavailable players and their reasons for missing Saturday’s game.

• DT Marcus Harris (opt-out)
• DB DJ James (opt-out)
• C Avery Jones (unknown)
• DB Nehemiah Pritchett (opt-out)
• DB Jaylin Simpson (unknown)

While Simpson has accepted his invite to the Senior Bowl, indicating his intentions to turn to the NFL Draft, there hasn’t been an official announcement that he planned on opting out of the bowl game. Freeze also mentioned at the start of bowl preparations that Simpson was still nursing a nagging hamstring injury, which could explain his absence.

Meanwhile, despite chatter about defensive back Zion Puckett missing the game after he too declared for the NFL Draft, Puckett was fully dressed out for pregame warmups, indicating he’ll likely play against the Terrapins.

1:05 p.m. | Coin toss

Auburn calls tails and wins the toss. The Tigers will defer to the second half.

Maryland’s offense will take the field first.

1:11 p.m. | Maryland scores game’s first touchdown

With a five-play, 75-yard drive, the Maryland Terrapins find the end zone first thanks to a 2-yard rush from quarterback Billy Edwards Jr.

The score was set up by a 61-yard pass play between Edwards and running back Roman Hemby. Auburn freshman defensive back Kayin Lee was in position to shorten the big play, but couldn’t finish the tackle.

Maryland leads Auburn 7-0 with 13:11 to play in the first quarter.