Byrum Brown threw two touchdown passes and caught another as Auburn rolled to a 43-8 rout of visiting Southern Miss on Saturday night.
After eking out a one-point win over Baylor in its season opener, Auburn (2-0) easily won its home opener following a lightning delay before kickoff.
Brown completed 18 of 29 passes for 226 yards. He threw a 22-yard TD to Jonathen Echols in the first quarter and an 8-yard TD to DeShawn Spencer in the second.
Brown dove for a 5-yard TD on a fourth-down reverse pass from Christian Neptune with 9:56 left in the third for a 34-8 lead.
Brown also rushed for 88 yards on 13 attempts as Auburn totaled 343 yards on the ground and 613 total yards to offset committing 10 penalties.
Cornerback Andre Jordan Jr. contributed his first two career interceptions, including a 34-yard return on the first play of the contest. Auburn also scored on a safety when Cody Sigler sacked quarterback Ethan Hampton and forced an intentional grounding penalty.
Omar Mabson II led the Tigers with a career-high 108 rushing yards, including a 2-yard TD late in the third for Auburn’s final points.
Alex McPherson contributed a pair of field goals, including a career-long 55-yarder right before halftime.
Hampton completed 18 of 27 passes for 146 yards but the Golden Eagles (1-1) were also doomed by committing 11 penalties, including four false starts in the opening quarter. Steven Robinson had the only touchdown for Southern Miss, which last beat Auburn in 1991.
Following a false-start penalty, Jordan stepped in front of a pass intended for Mario Sanders and gave Auburn the lead. Brown had a 52-yard run nullified because of a holding penalty with 10:53 left but found a wide-open Echols for a 14-0 lead a little over seven minutes later.
Less than a minute after Jordan’s second interception, Jeremiah Koger had a TD nullified because he did not control possession and McPherson booted his first field goal with 1:31 left in the first. Auburn took a 24-0 lead on Spencer’s diving catch with 6:40 left and answered Robinson’s TD by getting another field goal just before halftime.
–Field Level Media
