Gene Chizik and Auburn will be tested Thursday night at Mississippi St.
Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen is quite familiar with the multitalented Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton.
Now the rest of the country can see just how good Newton is when the 22nd-ranked Tigers play at Mississippi State in an SEC West battle Thursday night at 4:45 p.m. (PT) with ESPN televising.
The Bulldogs are small two-point college football spread favorites at home. The game 'total' had not been posted at press.
Newton lived up to his high expectations in his Auburn debut this past week running for 171 yards, passing for 186 yards and combining for five touchdowns in a 52-26 victory against Arkansas State of the Sun Belt Conference. Newton showed off his great speed and strong passing arm. He was named the SEC Player of the Week and is the first-week conference leader in rushing and total offense.
Mario Fannin, Michael Dyer and Kodi Burns all backed Newton with big plays. Fannin rushed for 65 yards and scored two touchdowns.
The Tigers, though, just missed covering the spread as 31 ½-point home favorites. The combined 78 points sailed ‘over’ the 52 ½-point total.
Auburn has never lost in 15 meetings against a Sun Belt foe. Mississippi State is SEC, though. The Bulldogs received their own impressive quarterback play in a 49-7 romp over Memphis.
Chris Reif started behind center for Mississippi State, but backup quarterback Tyler Russell came in and ended up tying a school record with four touchdown passes.
Reif and Russell combined to pass for 372 yards and run up 569 yards of offense, just 27 yards short of a school record. Chad Bumphis and Brandon Heavens each caught two touchdown passes and Vick Ballard ran for two scores. The Bulldogs led the SEC in rushing last year and rank fifth this year.
The Bulldogs held Memphis to 237 yards, stopping them on 13 of 15 third-down tries.
Newton presents a much more difficult challenge for the Bulldogs. Newton began his career at Florida, where Mullen was the Gators’ offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer.
Newton then transferred to a junior college in Texas where he led Blinn College to the 2009 NJCAA national championship, throwing for 2,833 yards and 22 touchdowns, while rushing for 655 yards and scoring 16 touchdowns on the ground. Auburn won a heavy recruiting battle to land Newton.
After one week, Mississippi State and Auburn rank first and second, respectively, in the nation in passing efficiency.
“You can tell certainly they have put a great deal of emphasis on being able to throw the ball and balance their attack out,” Auburn coach Gene Chizik was quoted as saying about the Bulldogs. “Without any question, they’re doing that better.”
The Tigers have beaten Mississippi State in seven of the last eight meetings, including 49-29 last year as 15-point home favorites. The combined 78 points easily went ‘over’ the 46 ½-point total. Just two years ago, Auburn won 3-2 at Mississippi State failing to cover as 10-point favorites with the total closing at 38 ½.
Auburn has covered six of the past eight times in the series. The Tigers, however, are 1-9 ATS the past two seasons in road contests, including 0-4 as road ‘chalk.’
Auburn also is just 5-11 ATS in its last 16 SEC contests. The Tigers have failed to cover in 11 of their last 16 matchups played in September.
Mississippi State has covered eight of the last 12 times it has been a home underdog. The Bulldogs are 4-1 ATS in their last five SEC contests at home.
The ‘over’ has cashed in five of Mississippi State’s last six games played in September. There are a couple of ‘under’ trends, though. The ‘under’ is 16-7-2 in Auburn’s last 25 conference games. The ‘under’ has cashed in seven of Mississippi State’s past nine games.
The weather forecast is for partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low 70s.