By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
For the first time since Baylor joined the Big 12, an SEC program is coming to Waco.
Baylor is set to host Auburn in a prime-time, blackout season opener on Friday night. The game is the first of two Power-conference matchups on the nonconference docket for the Bears, who will travel up I-35 to face No. 16 SMU next week.
“That game’s vital,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said of Baylor at SEC Media Days. “We’re gonna be playing in a difficult environment against a really good football team that’s well-coached by Dave Aranda. … This is not a game that you open up with, and you sleepwalk at all and expect to win. And that sense of urgency should be seen all throughout camp.”
The Tigers are 11-14 in two seasons under Freeze, the former Ole Miss and Liberty head coach who took over after Bryan Harsin was fired in 2022. Auburn has won double-digit games just once since its 2013 BCS National Championship game appearance, including losing records the past four seasons.
Freeze’s squad was picked 11th in the SEC media poll, but still received votes in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, in part thanks to a star-studded transfer class that ranked No. 8 in the nation.
Former Georgia Tech receiver Eric Singleton Jr (754 yards, three touchdowns), a top-five transfer in the portal, joins sophomore Cam Coleman (598 yards, eight touchdowns) and Wake Forest transfer Horatio Fields in attempting to recreate the production of newly minted NFL wideout Keandre Lambert-Smith (981 yards, eight touchdowns).
Baylor head coach Aranda said stopping the Tigers’ receivers would be “a challenge.”
“I think it’s going to take the front people doing their part to help the people that are in the back,” Aranda said. “If you’re looking at it as a one-vs-one proposition, I can see where maybe from the Auburn side you feel confident about all of it. I think we have to look at it as, ‘Hey, this is where my help is, this is where I’m playing to my help, this is my part in the thing. I’m going to do my part so that the overall team can execute.’”
Auburn’s stable of receivers is deep, but the voice under center is still in question. Former five-star Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold entered camp as the presumed starter, but less than two weeks before the game, he still hadn’t decided between his top three options. (Earlier this week, Arnold was officially named the starter.)
After taking over as Oklahoma’s starter in the 2023 Alamo Bowl, Arnold went 2-6 against Power conference opponents — the lone exceptions being a 16-12 win over Houston and a 24-3 upset victory over Alabama.
“Jackson [Arnold], I think, is progressing every practice,” Freeze said. “I’m excited to see him go and compete. In our mock game that we had, I thought his decision-making was really good. I wish he’d hang in the pocket a little more and go through his progressions, and we’re working on that with him. But at the same time, you know, he’s an athlete that creates some things too when he does escape the pocket.”
Auburn made its bones on defense last season, allowing 21.3 points per game (No. 28 nationally). Star edge rusher Keldric Faulk (45 tackles, seven sacks) is back to lead a talented front seven, which must replace NFL Draft pick Jalen McLeod (57 tackles, eight sacks).
“We expect length, for long arms on the edge rushers,” redshirt senior offensive lineman Ryan Lengyel said. “We expect a lot of size, but it’s kind of hard first game. You don’t know what they’ve added to their toolbox, you don’t know how they’ve progressed from last year. And so we’re kind of taking everything with a grain of salt and just kind of going to be ready to adjust on the fly.”
Baylor enters the season tied for ninth in the nation with 13 returning starters. Redshirt senior quarterback Sawyer Robertson is back, as is redshirt sophomore halfback Bryson Washington. That duo is surrounded by four returning offensive line starters and Robertson’s top receiving targets at both wideout and tight end.
“You want to start fast in a game like this,” Aranda said. “We’re doing all this work in the dark, pretty soon we’re gonna be stepping out into the light. And it can be bright sometimes for people. … We’ve got guys that have been in the light before and have shone brightly in the light. And so that’s helpful for some of the guys that haven’t yet and are wanting to do that.”
Auburn enters the matchup as a 2.5-point favorite against the Bears, who won six straight games to close the 2024 regular season and are chasing a second Big 12 championship under Aranda. The game will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday at McLane Stadium.
