< PreviousSTATS COMPARISONS AUBURN STATS LEADERS RUSHING ATT NET AVG TD LONG AVG/G Sean Jackson 5 64 12.8 1 45 64.0 Jeremiah Cobb 5 57 11.4 1 42 57.0 Robby Ashford 9 51 5.7 3 11 51.0 PASSING CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD AVG/G Payton Thorne 10-17-0 58.8 141 1 141.0 Holden Geriner 2-2-0 100.0 59 0 59.0 Robby Ashford 2-6-0 33.3 3 0 3.0 RECEIVING NO. YDS AVG TD LONG AVG/G Malcolm Johnson Jr. 2 59 29.5 0 30 59.0 Jay Fair 5 56 11.2 1 29 56.0 Shane Hooks 2 41 20.5 0 21 41.0 DEFENSE UA A TOT TFL-YDS SACKS-YDS Eugene Asante 3 3 6.0 1.5-8 0.5-3 Donovan Kaufman 3 1 4.0 2.0-8 1.0-6 Keionte Scott 2 2 4.0 0.0-0 0.0-0 CAL STATS LEADER RUSHING ATT NET AVG TD LONG AVG/G Jaydn Ott 20 188 9.4 2 66 188.0 Isaiah Ifanse 10 54 5.4 3 26 54.0 Ashton Stredick 13 51 3.9 1 10 51.0 PASSING CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD AVG/G Ben Finley 24-34-1 70.6 279 1 279.0 Sam Jackson V 3-4-0 75.0 33 1 33.0 RECEIVING NO. YDS AVG TD LONG AVG/G Jeremiah Hunter 6 64 10.7 1 23 64.0 Monroe Young 4 63 15.8 0 34 63.0 Mavin Anderson 2 41 20.5 0 24 41.0 DEFENSE UA A TOT TFL-YDS SACKS-YDS Jackson Sirmon 6 2 8.0 1.0-10 1.0-10 Blake Antzoulatos 1 3 4.0 0.0-0 0.0-0 Xavier Carlton 1 3 4.0 1.5-6 0.0-0 Here is a quick look at the top team statistics for the Tigers and the Golden Bears. Quick Look n Total Touchdowns 88 n Rushing Yards 289357 n Passing Yards 203312 20 STATS COMPARISONS AUBURNTIGERS.COM® FAVORITE CHIP OF THE22 CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ Months of planning, days of travel and hours of preparation have gone into providing Auburn with the opportunity to earn its first win in The Golden State when the Tigers play California Saturday at 9:30 p.m. CT in Berkeley. “It creates some challenges, but this will be a good test for all of us: coaches, training staff, nutritionists, strength staff, support staff and players,” said head coach Hugh Freeze, whose first Auburn road trip is a 2,600-mile doozy. “How do we handle if things are a lit- tle uncomfortable or it’s not exactly the way we want it? I’m speaking to myself as much as anyone, and you’ve got to play a really good football team at their place. “When our body times are 9:30 or 10 at night and we’re kicking off. All of that is going to be a challenge, but that’s what life is. How we approach it and the attitude we have for the opportunity we have ought to be one of gratitude and thankfulness. We get another opportu- nity to represent this school, our confer- ence, and each other. Let’s go make the most of it.” CALIFORNIA, HERE THEY COME Fewer than 24 hours after Auburn kicked off the 2023 season with a 59-14 victory vs. Massachusetts at Jordan-Hare Stadium, the Tigers’ equipment truck departed the Woltosz Football Perfor- mance Center Sunday afternoon for the four-day cross-country journey. Drivers Mark Sheppard and Greg Trapp made it to Little Rock, Arkansas by Sunday night. Come Monday, they headed west across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle before stopping for the night in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Desert Tuesday featured a 700-mile trek across Arizona to Barstow, California, be- fore arriving in Berkeley Wednesday af- ternoon. Soon after the Tigers dispatched the Minutemen on Saturday, Auburn’s equipment team began washing, pack- ing and loading trunks of items that the team did not need for practice on the Plains during the week. “We’ll fly the helmets, shoulder pads and jerseys with us,” said assistant equip- ment manager Hunter Smithwick. The distance from Auburn to Berke- ley is more than three times farther than Auburn’s longest SEC road trip, 775 miles to Texas A&M. U.S. Department of Transportation regulations require drivers to take a 34- hour break after long hauls such as the one from Alabama to Northern Califor- nia, a factor that influenced the truck’s early departure. “Timing that out so they can move the truck when we’re there, get out there and have enough hours to get it back has been the challenging part,” Smithwick said. After the game, Auburn will load two trucks: the 18-wheeler for the long drive home, and a smaller truck bound for the Oakland airport containing uniforms and equipment that will fly back with the team. Fifteen Auburn University students assist the full-time equipment staff. “We couldn’t do it without them,” Smithwick said. BAY AREA LOGISTICS Senior associate AD for operations Jeremy Roberts reached out to Stanford to see where its football team stays when it visits the Cal Bears. “They gave us the recommendation that was our ultimate choice,” Roberts said. With seven hours of bus and plane travel required to get from Auburn’s campus to the team hotel in San Mateo, CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ AUBURNTIGERS.COM CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’: AUBURN PREPARES FOR CROSS-COUNTRY TRIP BY JEFF SHEARERCalifornia, the Tigers decided to depart Thursday, one day earlier than a normal road trip. That gives Auburn head football di- etitian Danielle Gillen an opportunity to prepare three additional menus with the hotel’s kitchen staff. Auburn looks for hotels that have ex- perience hosting college football teams, says Roberts. “We can be in a hotel right across the street from the stadium but if they don’t know how to deal with a team, don’t have the banquet space or the meeting room space it doesn’t do us any good,” he said. “That’s our primary objective when we’re looking for somewhere to stay, especial- ly when we’re going places we haven’t been before.” Director of football technology & dig- ital innovation Matt Hard makes sure coaches can show video to their units in hotel meeting rooms during the long build-up to Saturday’s late kickoff. Auburn will practice briefly Friday at the College of San Mateo rather than drive 30 miles each way to California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley for a walk-through. Roberts informed Cal about Tiger Walk and the possibility of approximate- ly 10,000 Auburn fans greeting the team when the buses arrive at the stadium Saturday evening. “We want Auburn people to have a good experience while they’re there and you also don’t want the people hosting you to feel like you didn’t give them a chance to prepare and feel confident about their plan,” he said. For the team behind the team, when the game ends, the work continues. It figures to be close to 1 a.m. CT at the game’s conclusion. Add another hour before the trucks and buses leave the stadium, and another hour to travel to the airport in Oakland, conduct a securi- ty screening and board the plane for the four-hour flight back to Montgomery. “That’s 7 a.m. and you’ve got to un- load the plane and load the truck again so you’re looking at 8:30 or 9 a.m. before we roll back in to campus,” Roberts said. “We have another game the next week so preparations will begin immediately for that.” Planning for Auburn’s California road trip began with a site visit 18 months ago. “It’s an important game for us,” Rob- erts said. “Our job is to make sure that regardless of the distance of the trip that we give our team the best chance to win through our preparation, making sure we’re organized, we communicate with the hotel and when we walk in the door, they 100 percent understand what our expectations are. “You’re working with a lot of people you don’t really know. You have to have confidence that the relationship you’ve created with them is going to make it great.” Santa Clara in 1936, Southern Califor- nia in 2002 and the 2014 BCS champi- onship game vs. Florida State in Pasade- na. Three times before the Tigers have made this long westward journey, only to come home empty-handed, a trend the 2023 Tigers are determined to end. “[Head strength & conditioning] Coach Dom [Studzinksi] will have us pre- pared with hydration and in the weight- room, Ms. Danielle will with nutrition and Coach Freeze and every single coach will have us prepared,” said jack linebacker and team captain Elijah McAllister. “I’m not worried about the trip because all of our coaches are in tune, they’re going to have us prepared and ready to go on Saturday night.” AUBURNTIGERS.COM 24 CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’save on auto insurance spend on Tiger merch *INSURANCE FEATURE NOT AVAILABLE IN EVERY STATE. Countrywide average premium savings for customers with safe driving discounts and Drivewise vs. those without. Savings vary by state, based on driving behaviors & based on how you buy. Subject to terms, conditions & availability. In some states, through your participation in Drivewise, your driving data may be used for purposes of rating & your rate could increase with high-risk driving. Allstate Fire and Casualty Ins. Co. & affiliates. 3100 Sanders Rd, Northbrook, IL. © 2023 Allstate Insurance Co. Marks are registered trademarks of their respective owners. PROUD PARTNER Safe driving and Drivewise® saves you 40%*28 HEAD COACH HUGH FREEZE Hugh Freeze became the 31st head football coach in Auburn history in No- vember, 2022. Freeze has nearly three decades of continued coaching success, including head coaching experience that has led to conference titles, nationally ranked recruiting classes and bowl appear- ances at multiple stops during his highly decorated career. Freeze came to Auburn from Liber- ty University, where he was head coach from 2019-22. Freeze led the Flames to four bowl games and a 34-15 record. Freeze experienced similar success at each of his head coaching stops prior to Liberty that include Lambuth Univer- sity (2008-09), Arkansas State (2011) and Ole Miss (2012-16). Freeze led each school to double-digit win seasons, while helping Ole Miss to a top 10 national fin- ish in 2015. His on-field coaching record in 12 years is 103-47. Liberty was just one of five FBS teams in the country to win a bowl game each season from 2019-21, joining Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana. It was the second team in NCAA history to win a bowl game during its first three full sea- sons at the FBS level, all coming under Freeze’s leadership. Freeze guided Liberty to a 10-1 overall record in 2020 and the team’s first-ever national ranking as it finished No. 17 in the country. That season, Lib- erty had the best start in program history (8-0), tied the program record for wins (10) and defeated two Power 5 programs in Syracuse and Virginia Tech. For his ef- forts, Freeze was a finalist for the George Munger Collegiate Coach of the Year Award. Known for his fast-paced offensive style, Freeze’s 2020 Liberty team set a school record for rushing yards in a sea- son in 2020 (2,776) and ranked No. 9 in the country in rushing offense. Liberty also ranked No. 15 nationally in total of- fense (482.7 yards per game) and No. 11 in total defense (317.7 yards per game). The Flames were one of three teams in the country to rank in the top 20 in both total offense and total defense in 2020, joining Clemson and BYU. Spearheading Liberty’s outstand- ing offense in 2020 was former Auburn quarterback Malik Willis, who burst into the spotlight leading the nation in rushing yards (944) and touchdowns (14) by a FBS quarterback. Willis earned All-America honors, was named to the Davey O’Brien Award Quarterback Class of 2020 and was on the 2020 Maxwell Award watch list. The Flames posted an eight-win sea- son in 2021 after facing eight bowl-eli- gible teams during that campaign. Lib- erty’s defense finished the 2021 season ranked No. 7 nationally in passing yards allowed, No. 11 in total defense and No. 24 in scoring defense. Offensively, Lib- erty finished 2021 ranked No. 25 in the country in scoring offense and No. 8 in passing yards per completion. Leading the charge for the Flames in 2021 once again was Willis, who was a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Na- tional Quarterback Award and the Max- well Award and a top 10 candidate for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Willis was a third-round draft pick of the Ten- nessee Titans in the 2022 NFL Draft. In 2022, Liberty finished the regu- lar season 8-4 with wins over Arkansas and BYU; three of the four losses came by a combined five points. The Flames earned a berth in the Boca Raton Bowl. While head coach at Ole Miss, Freeze took the Rebels to bowl games in three of his five seasons, including wins in the 2013 Music City and the 2016 Sugar bowls. Freeze’s time in Oxford was highlight- ed by a 10-3 campaign in 2015, the pro- gram’s first 10-win season since 2003. The Rebels won their first four games of the 2015 season, including a 43-37 road victory over No. 2 Alabama, Ole Miss’ first win in Tuscaloosa since 1988. The Rebels were ranked as high as No. 3 in the national polls in both 2014 and 2015 and finished in the national Top 10 for the first time since 1969 after the Sugar Bowl win. Ole Miss was ranked in the top 25 for 45 weeks over Freeze’s five-year tenure, including a string of 27 straight weeks in the polls for the first time since 1957-62. Freeze collected four nationally ranked recruiting classes at Ole Miss. In 2013 and 2016, his recruiting classes ranked in the top five nationally, the best in program history. Freeze and his staff developed 20 players who earned all-SEC honors, in- cluding All-Americans Cody Prewitt, Senquez Golson, Robert Nkemdiche, Laremy Tunsil, Evan Engram, Laquon Treadwell and Trae Elston. AUBURNTIGERS.COM HUGH FREEZE HEAD COACH® TRUCKWORX.COMNext >