How Auburn football special teams provided difference-making swing against Vandy

AUBURN — Alex Golesh said it was the case following Auburn football‘s latest win, and after looking at the film, he held the same belief.

Special teams was “the difference” in Auburn‘s 21-15 victory against Vanderbilt over the weekend, Golesh said Monday, Sept. 28, and it’s difficult to see any argument against it.

The biggest play of the game went in Auburn’s favor, as running back Omar Mabson II blocked a punt that was returned for a touchdown, but Auburn’s special teamers squandered more than one Commodore opportunity.

Before Vanderbilt’s punt was blocked, its previous drive, officially logged as a turnover on downs, saw the Tigers snuff out a fake punt for negative yards. The Commodores‘ final drive of the first half also ended with no points thanks to Auburn defensive lineman Cody Sigler blocking a 48-yard field goal attempt.

In all, it was at least a 10-point swing. According to special teams coordinator Jacob Bronowski, it took “an army” to get there.

“The duration of the week and our process, the practice squad guys giving a great look like Hunter Ousley, Ryan Ghea,” Bronowski said. “Willie G (William Grier McDuffie) was actually in the shield, kind of giving the cadence and doing the same thing that their guys do.

“Ryan Jackson does a phenomenal job, our special teams analyst, with those guys. We get the looks exactly how they are on game day. For our guys, that creates confidence for them, so then they can go out there and have success.”

While Auburn didn’t display a wire-to-wire dominance on offense or defense against Vanderbilt, it certainly did on special teams, and with highly involved players like Mabson and Sigler playing a part, Golesh sees an example of what he and his coaching staff have preached.

“We keep talking about just keep giving effort, it’ll come, just keep giving effort,” Golesh said. “It’s really good to have proof of concept there for our own guys to be able to understand that.”

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: How Auburn football special teams provided difference-making swing against Vandy