Florida vs. Auburn Early Picks, Predictions & Preview with Brooks Austin

It’s a massive one Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium, where Florida goes on the road to take on Auburn. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.

There are several keys to this matchup, starting with the Buster Faulkner vs. DJ Durkin matchup.

I think you’re going to have to outscore Florida this year.

I don’t think you’re going to get them into some defensive battle. I don’t think you’re going to get them into a rock fight. I think you’re going to have to beat them by scoring more than 28 points every single time you play them.

I think their offense is that good.

They’ve got plenty of elite weapons. Their run game is superb. We all know this.

I’m very curious to study what DJ Durkin does. What was the plan? How did you think you could attack this Buster Faulkner offense?

Quite frankly, it’s required just having better players than him to beat him and stop him.

We watched it firsthand in those Georgia Tech-Georgia games for years. It felt like they were always able to maintain possession, never really get behind the sticks and always opened really, really well.

I’m very curious to see how Durkin attacks him.

Can Auburn Control the Pace?

This Florida defense struggled with pace in Week 1 against FAU.

I’m very curious to see how the pacing goes in this football game from Auburn’s offense. They’re a wide-choice offense. They want to play fast.

But when USF played a bunch of these Power Four and SEC teams the last couple years, they were trying to take 65 snaps, not 85 snaps.

Do you maintain that?

Because they didn’t against Baylor. Against Baylor, they tried to play fast and they three-and-out quite a bit in that football game.

I’m very curious to see how Florida responds to the pace and see if Auburn can do the same thing that FAU did to them.

Can Auburn Run the Football?

Can Auburn run the ball successfully at all?

Was that Baylor domination at the line of scrimmage against Auburn’s offensive line an outlier, or is that going to be the standard for Power Four defenses against this offensive line?

Are they just going to run through their face, eliminate the run game and get after the quarterback?

Which one of those performances is the outlier is a major question for me.

There’s really no carryover from what USF did against Florida last year, either. Everything has changed dramatically.

Florida’s defensive identity and the structure of the defense haven’t changed all that much, but that’s because everybody’s a 4-2-5 football team.

I bet their coverage splits have changed. I bet how they decide to play this wide-choice offense has changed.

I thought about studying Tulane-USF and how Jon Sumrall attacked it there, but that was two years ago. I don’t even think there’s much carryover there.

I’m very interested in this football game.

Byron Brown’s Legs Could Matter

I know it was Southern Miss, but Byron Brown’s legs looked far more a part of the game plan a week ago.

He had 18 true carries for, I believe, 88 yards in that football game.

We know these wide-choice offenses. They’re going to attempt to run the football.

We’ll see how Florida’s defensive line holds up in this matchup.

Florida vs. Auburn Early Prediction

Here’s my “unless it doesn’t happen” prediction: Aaron Philo throws three interceptions and Florida still finds a way to win.

Florida 27, Auburn 20.