Auburn Football: Game-by-game predictions for Tigers in 2018
Auburn’s fourth straight home game is a week five contest against the improving Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson has taken a slight step backward from the Larry Fedora era but the Eagles are still playing good football. This is the Tigers homecoming game and they’ll continue to roll against Southern Miss. Hopson’s Eagles enter 2018 as the S&P+’s 94th-ranked team.
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The Golden Eagles return five offensive starters from the 2017 season including quarterback Kwadra Griggs. Griggs threw for 1,879 yards and 16 touchdowns with only two interceptions last year. The USM offense finished 2017 ranked 65th in the offensive S&P+. Three really good offensive linemen and tight end Jay’Shawn Washington are back but the Tigers will stymie the USM offense with inside linebacker Deshaun Davis who returns after logging 82 tackles a year ago.
Auburn’s offense won’t have the output against a hard-hitting Golden Eagles defense but USM’s issue is only returning three starters. Coach Hopson’s defense actually has no returning player back that logged an interception in 2017. The Tigers may not run between the tackles against a tough defense but they will be able to air it out to Craig-Myers, Ryan Davis and Darius Slayton.