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5 bowl records Auburn would love to break against UCF in Peach Bowl
By Jim Tomlin
Published:
On New Year’s Day, when Auburn faces Central Florida in the Peach Bowl, the Tigers will be favored to uphold the SEC’s postseason honor. Auburn will aim for its sixth 11-win season. Among SEC teams, only Alabama (21 times, including this season), Georgia (10, including this year), Tennessee (8), LSU (7) and Florida (7) have earned 11 victories more frequently.
And along the way, Auburn would not mind breaking some bowl records, or perhaps even one career NCAA record.
So, here are five records which Auburn will aim to break or tie against the Knights.
Most Peach Bowl victories
Auburn is 23-16-2 all-time in bowls heading into its 42nd all-time appearance. The Tigers have won the Gator Bowl and the Peach Bowl four times each, their most victories in any bowl. So this is an opportunity to break that record, and also tie LSU’s five victories, the most in this postseason game that Atlanta has hosted annually since 1968. And all six Auburn appearances, including Monday’s matchup, have come since 1990. Auburn has defeated Indiana (on Dec. 29, 1990), Virginia (on Dec. 31, 2011) and Clemson twice (on Jan. 2, 1998 and Dec. 31, 2007) in the Peach Bowl.
Rushing yards in a bowl
It’s a little surprising that Auburn has never produced a 200-yard rusher in a bowl game considering some of the talented running backs who have popped up on The Plains. Bo Jackson, Michael Dyer, Brent Fullwood and Ronnie Brown have all had fine bowl performances for Auburn. But you might win a bet or two in eastern Alabama if you know that the school record for rushing yards in a postseason game belongs to Tre Mason, who had 195 yards against Florida State in a losing effort in the BCS Championship Game to end the 2013 season.
With Kam Pettway staying home, Kerryon Johnson might have ample opportunity to break this mark against a UCF team that ranks 65th in the country in rush defense.
Most points
UCF leads the nation in scoring at 49.4 points a game and Auburn is 25th with a 34.4 average. The Knights also allow 25.2 points a game — though after two meetings with No. 2 scoring offense Memphis plus games against No. 8 SMU and No. 15 USF, that number’s not bad. Still, it seems likely that this game might become a bit of a shootout, and UCF has not faced a running back as good as Johnson.
Interestingly, Auburn’s record for most point scored in a bowl is 43, which matches the most points it has allowed. The Tigers have too much defense to allow that many points, even to the nation’s top scoring attack, but that mark for points scored — which came in 2011 against Virginia, also in the Peach Bowl — might be in danger.
Longest touchdown pass
Quarterback Jarrett Stidham and the Auburn offense will seek a few big plays to put things out of reach against the quick-scoring UCF offense. The Tigers had five consecutive games with at least 235 yards passing this season until Georgia held them to 145 in the SEC Championship Game.
Ryan Davis leads Auburn with 76 receptions and 768 receiving yards. But two others might be bigger big-play threats in the Peach Bowl: Darius Slayton averages 23.9 yards a catch this season (24 for 574 yards) and Will Hastings isn’t far behind at 20.4 (20 for 408).
If Auburn breaks its record for longest touchdown pass in a bowl — a 73-yarder from Pat Washington to Bo Jackson in the January 1986 Cotton Bowl — and especially if it happens early, that might keep the UCF defense honest and help get Auburn’s ground game cranking. If it’s anything like the 1986 play, Stidham won’t even have to do much work.
Career points and field goals by a kicker
Daniel Carlson would have to hit quite a few field goals to get this one, which means Auburn would find itself short of a touchdown on several drives. Still, it’s not impossible to think that Carlson might break the NCAA career scoring record by a kicker.
The senior and three-time Lou Groza Award finalist has 471 career points, 23 behind the kicker record set last year by Arizona State’s Zane Gonzalez. Six PATs and six field goals would do it — again, not likely, but if it happens it would mean that Auburn fans are enjoying a heck of an offensive display by their team.
Just the six field goals alone would tie that career mark as well; Carlson has 90 and Gonzalez holds the record at 96 field goals.
Even if Carlson does not reach those records, he can take aim at Auburn’s record for longest field goal in a bowl, held jointly by Jaret Holmes (1998) and John Riley (1968), who hit 52-yarders.
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
