(Photo via Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)
Every Tuesday right here you can read The Auburn Corner, where we’ll get into a different topic on the Auburn Tigers, break down the previous game, preview the upcoming game, and everything in between.
In this week’s edition, next year’s SEC schedules have been released. Let’s take a look at Auburn’s and break down what will be the toughest stretches, the best games, and more. First, here’s the schedule:
Week 1: Home vs. Alabama A&M
Week 2: Home vs. California
Week 3: Home vs. New Mexico
Week 4: Home vs. Arkansas
Week 5: Home vs. Oklahoma
Week 6: Away at Georgia
Week 7: BYE
Week 8: Away at Missouri
Week 9: Away at Kentucky
Week 10: Home vs. Vanderbilt
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: Home vs. Louisiana-Monroe
Week 13: Home vs. Texas A&M
Week 14: Away at Alabama
There’s a lot to get into here, but the first thing that immediately jumps off the page is how the home games are stacked up. Auburn will open the season with FIVE straight games at Jordan-Hare Stadium, then play its final three home games before the Iron Bowl consecutively as well.
Now, of course this will mean a long October of road games, but you still have to like the way this stacks up for the Tigers. Auburn will not play a single road game until October when they head to Athens to take on Georgia.
While it wasn’t news to Auburn, the most difficult aspect of the schedule is the fact that it will have to play road games both in Athens and Tuscaloosa as it does every other year. Because of this, Auburn must take advantage of their winnable home games against Arkansas and even knock off one of Oklahoma or Texas A&M.
October will be very difficult. Starting with a road trip to Athens and a kindly placed bye, Auburn will have to head north to Missouri the following week to take on a Tiger team that was one of the surprises of the SEC this season and returns a ton of talent.
Kentucky the following week on the road will not be a pushover either before things lighten up with Vanderbilt and Louisiana-Monroe.
All things considered, it seems to be a workable schedule for the Auburn Tigers as they look ahead to year two of the Hugh Freeze era.