< PreviousSTATS COMPARISONS AUBURN STATS LEADERS RUSHING ATT NET AVG TD LONG AVG/G Payton Thorne 22 140 6.4 2 38 46.7 Damari Alston 24 119 5.0 1 13 39.7 Jarquez Hunter 22 90 4.1 1 19 45.0 PASSING CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD AVG/G Payton Thorne 43-63-3 68.3 517 4 172.3 Robby Ashford 6-13-0 46.2 61 1 20.3 RECEIVING NO. YDS AVG TD LONG AVG/G Jay Fair 14 174 12.4 2 36 58.0 Rivaldo Fairweather 8 96 12.0 1 41 32.0 Shane Hooks 5 88 17.6 1 32 29.3 DEFENSE UA A TOT TFL-YDS SACKS-YDS Eugene Asante 11 8 19.0 3.5-23 2.0-17 Donovan Kaufman 7 5 12.0 2.5-9 1.0-6 Larry Nixon III 6 4 10.0 1.0-0 0.0-0 Keionte Scott 8 2 10.0 0.0-0 0.0-0 TEXAS A&M STATS LEADER RUSHING ATT NET AVG TD LONG AVG/G Amari Daniels 34 149 4.4 2 27 49.7 Rueben Owens 20 83 4.2 1 21 27.7 Le’Veon Moss 14 72 5.1 1 17 36.0 PASSING CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD AVG/G Conner Weigman 74-105-2 70.5 909 8 303.0 Max Johnson 13-20-0 65.0 103 2 51.5 RECEIVING NO. YDS AVG TD LONG AVG/G Evan Stewart 19 257 13.5 2 44 128.5 Ainias Smith 13 194 14.9 0 32 64.7 Jahdae Walker 8 141 17.6 1 37 47.0 DEFENSE UA A TOT TFL-YDS SACKS-YDS Edgerrin Cooper 8 8 16.0 4.0-10 0.0-0 Josh DeBerry 9 5 14.0 1.5-7 1.0-7 Taurean York 5 6 11.0 0.0-0 0.0-0 Here is a quick look at the top team statistics for the Tigers and the Aggies. Quick Look n Total Touchdowns 1616 n Rushing Yards 647389 n Passing Yards 6371,012 20 STATS COMPARISONS AUBURNTIGERS.COM® FAVORITE CHIP OF THE22 COVER FEATURE It was late in the fourth quarter at Cal. Auburn was clinging to a 14-10 lead. The defense had just forced a 3-and-out, but after the offense turned it over, the defense trotted back out on the field in need of one more stop. It didn’t matter if they were tired or hurting. It didn’t mat- ter that it was past midnight back home in Auburn. One more stop. “Let’s work!” yelled linebacker Eu- gene Asante as they took the field. “Once you hear ‘Let’s work,’ it’s go time,” teammate Jalen McLeod said. “Because he’s the energy guy. He’s go- ing to bring that energy every play. Even when he’s tired, he brings that energy. ‘Let’s work.’ Once we hear that, ‘OK. He’s right. We’ve got to get right.’” Cal advanced to Auburn’s 15-yard line on the first play of the drive, but that was as far as the Bears would get. Following a penalty, Asante made a tackle on first down, his 12th of the game. Two plays lat- er on fourth down, with the game on the line, D.J. James intercepted a pass in the end zone to clinch the victory. On Monday, Asante was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance. The senior has become more fa- mous, however, because of his signature phrase. “Let’s work!” The phrase itself didn’t start with As- ante. It was a Madden streamer, Chibat- ta Mitch. He would play the video game against another user, and while on a live stream with people watching, he started yelling, “Let’s Work!” as a way to hype himself up. Asante was one of those watching his stream. “Man, this guy is kind of like me,” he thought. “He was energetic. And I liked the phrase,” Asante said. “So, I came to work- outs and I started saying it, started artic- ulating it to the team, and it just started growing and growing and growing. The guys on the team say it now. When we’re starting workouts, they’re yelling, ‘Let’s work!’” It really started to take off in August when Asante, dressed in full uniform, went around campus on the first day of classes at Auburn and yelled “Let’s work!” to students passing by as part of a video produced by the Auburn Football creative team. Since then, Asante has started hear- ing “Let’s Work!” all over town. He heard it at Baumhower’s Victory Grille when he was a guest on Tiger Talk two weeks ago. He heard it walking through Tiger Walk last Saturday. But no matter how many times he hears it, he’s not going to grow tired of it. He loves it. “The biggest thing for me is just con- tinuing to embody it, continuing to grow upon it and show people that is what I stand for and that is what I am,” Asante said. “I believe in that. The team is the same way. They’re trying to build upon it. If my energy is not up, they try to uplift me. ‘Eugene, let’s go. Let’s work.’ It’s a good thing.” It’s also a fitting phrase for Auburn given the Auburn Creed and specifical- ly the line, “Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.” “At Auburn, in the Creed, it talks about ‘Work, hard work,’” Asante said. “It’s another way of just reminding our- selves that this is the big stage. This is Auburn. This is who we are. The foun- dation of Auburn is built on hard-work- ing people. It’s built on people that are blue-collar, that come to work every day and put their hard hat on. COVER FEATURE AUBURNTIGERS.COM ‘LET’S WORK’: HOW A CATCHPHRASE HELPED EUGENE ASANTE REDISCOVER HIS IDENTITY BY GREG OSTENDORF“We’ve seen that with the teams of the past. The Cam Newton era. Coach Cadillac’s era. Just the different eras. We’re trying to embody that.” At this time last year, Asante wasn’t that energy guy his teammates see now. He had transferred in from North Caroli- na. He wasn’t playing like he thought he should. And shortly after he arrived at Au- burn in January, his father passed away. “I had to go through spring ball bat- tling a lot of things,” Asante said. “As a young man in this world, you need your father. It was a hard thing losing him be- cause he was my best friend.” At one point last season, Asante asked the coaches to be put on the scout team. The decision turned out to be a bless- ing. Not only did Asante improve as a player while on the scout team, but he regained some of that confidence by going against the likes of Tank Bigsby, now in the NFL, and Jarquez Hunter ev- ery day in practice. He knows he won’t face many better backs this season than those two. “Ultimately, it was a thing to try to im- prove myself,” Asante said. “And that sit- uation, being on scout team, if I didn’t go through that, I feel like I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m in today in terms of that hunger and being ready to go out there and show what I can do.” Through Auburn’s first three games this season, Asante leads the defense with 19 tackles. More importantly, he’s back to his old self. The energy and the enthusi- asm that was missing last year is back. “Let’s work!” is a perfect example. And nobody would be prouder to see it than his father who played a pivotal part in raising Asante to be the man he is to- day. “My dad meant a lot to me,” Asante said. “He developed me as a young man first – in terms of being a good person, caring about others as a Christian and as a man. You hate to see people go through some of the things that he went through in terms of sickness and differ- ent illnesses, but I just remember the foundations that he taught me and the principles that he stood on. So, it really fuels me to go out there and play for him because he was just a pure-hearted hu- man being. “Every moment I’m out there I’m thinking of him. Every sack I’m getting, I do my bow and then I point up to the sky. That’s all in his honor. I just want to con- tinue to make him proud as his son.” AUBURNTIGERS.COM 24 COVER FEATURE COVER FEATUREsave 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 >