Today at 12:00 p.m. ET, No. 9 Auburn (8-1, 4-1 SEC) and Tennessee (4-5, 1-4 SEC) square off live from Neyland Stadium in Tennessee. The game can be live streamed for free here. Auburn fans can hear all the action by tuning into 102.5 The Game while Tennessee fans can do the same on WNML-AM 990
Auburn's running game has been unstoppable entering play this afternoon. The team attempted just nine passes last week against Arkansas and the running game carried it to a 35-17 victory.
"We just feel like we're a big freight train and once we get started, it's hard to stop us," tailback Tre Mason told ESPN.
Mason ranks third in the league with 921 yards on 161 attempts and has reached the endzone a league-leading 13 times this season.
"He wanted the ball the other night," coach Gus Malzahn told ESPN after the team's latest win. "You could tell he was really explosive, he was breaking tackles. He's a veteran guy and was wanting the football and we just kept giving it to him."
Mason and quarterback Nick Marshall have led the running game, which leads the league and is ranked sixth nationally with an average of 306.2 yards per game. Marshall has five scores on the ground while rushing for 520 yards on 90 attempts. He's gone 90-for-152 (59.2%) for 1,266 yards with seven touchdowns and four picks.
Tennessee is coming off of a 31-3 defeat at then-No.10 Missouri last week where it allowed 339 rushing yards in the loss. Tennessee allows an average of 201.3 rushing yards on the ground.
"We're going to run the ball," center Reese Dismukes said per ESPN. "I don't think that's really going to change week in and week out. We've got the mind-set that we're going to run the football and that's the goal here. We're going to run the football."
Tennessee has prepared for Auburn's ground game and can only hope to contain Mason and the bevy of runners the team boasts.
"They have a mentality to run the football," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said via ESPN. "The thing about Auburn is they can beat you with quick screens, they can beat you with deep balls, and they can beat you with quarterback runs. If they decide to line up and run power offense at you, they can beat you."
Auburn will look to continue its potent running game while Tennessee will hope to stop it when these two teams take the field this afternoon.
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