No. 21 Oklahoma football is trying to get back on track after a disappointing 25–15 loss to Tennessee in Norman. They will be going on the road for the first time this season to play Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
We looked at three OU players to keep an eye on against the Tigers on Wednesday. Today, we’ll look at the other side with three Auburn players that Sooners fans should know about before the weekend.
RB Hunter Jarquez
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This Oklahoma defense has to deal with another top running back this week. The Sooners did a good job of slowing Makhi Hughes of Tulane and Dylan Sampson of Tennessee over the last two weeks. This weekend, they will try to do the same thing against senior Jarquez Hunter.
Hunter is one of the best running backs in the SEC; he was named to the preseason’s first team of all-SEC players. He is also off to a good start for the Tigers, averaging 7.1 yards per carry in their first four games. The Sooners currently sport a top-30 running defense which creates another fun matchup here as OU looks to keep Hunter under wraps and force Auburn’s revolving door of quarterbacks to try and beat them.
DE Keldric Faulk
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Auburn’s best pass rusher to this point in the season has been junior defensive lineman Keldric Faulk. Faulk currently sits just outside the top-30 in the country in sacks per game with three in the early part of the season to go with his 15 total tackles and five tackles for loss.
Faulk is a player who looks like he is quickly becoming a big time player in the SEC and will be a key figure to keep off of Michael Hawkins Jr. as he makes his first career start. The Oklahoma offensive line has had their well-documented problems through the first month of the season, so keeping Faulk as under wraps as possible will be important on Saturday.
WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith
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The Auburn offense hasn’t been especially pretty through the early part of the season – but the Tigers have had a knack for the big play. Four games in, Auburn is second in all of college football with six plays this season of 50+ yards.
Four of those six plays have come from senior wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who is showing himself to be one of the true home run hitters in the country this season. Lambert-Smith has 12 receptions for 338 yards – a rate of 28.2 yards per catch – with five scores. The Virginia native has been the big play threat for the Tigers with scores from 67 yards out on two different occasions including two of over 50 yards just last week against Arkansas.
The Auburn offense likely isn’t going to be able to drive the ball with regularity against the OU defense – so stopping Lambert-Smith from hurting them over the top with a quick score will be important. That was one area, if you wanted to nitpick, that burned the Sooners in an otherwise fantastic showing against Tennessee.
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