Hugh Freeze explains why Harkes Hunter didn’t have more carries against Vanderbilt

After rushing for 278 yards in a 24-10 win over Kentucky, running back Harkes Hunter seemed to be the player to watch for Auburn against Vanderbilt.

However, like the rest of Auburn’s offense, he didn’t have much of an impact, carrying the ball 12 times for 50 yards as Auburn lost 17–7. Hunter only had two carries in the second half, a decision Hugh Freeze said was due to the circumstances of the game.

Freese explained the decision to no longer use Hunter by saying that he was unable to do so due to Auburn’s pursuit of the game in the second half. Of Auburn’s six second-half possessions, the game was tied on two of them, with Auburn trailing by three on one and by 10 on the final two.

Auburn trailed throughout the fourth quarter, and although Hunter had no carries, he caught three passes for 21 yards.

On three second-half possessions where the game was either tied or Auburn trailed by three, the Tigers ran the ball nine times compared to six turnovers, but only two of those runs came from Hunter.

When asked if Hunter’s injury limited him in the second half, Freese said, “I don’t think he got hurt, but he did look gassed to me.”

Even more puzzling, Hunter’s second-half runs were eight and five yards, which doesn’t exactly indicate he was slowing down or being stopped by the Vanderbilt defense.

Payton Thorne gave a similar answer to Freeze when asked if Hunter was limited by the potential injury, saying he wasn’t sure and that he “hadn’t talked to him about it.”

Hunter and the running game as a whole never found much of a rhythm against Vanderbilt. Averaging just three yards per carry, Auburn couldn’t create the explosive rushes it did against Kentucky and couldn’t run the ball well enough to consistently stay ahead of schedule offensively.

“We could put a little more effort into making the gaps more open to make it easier for our running back to see the holes, but I haven’t really watched the film yet so I can’t comment on that,” offensive tackle Dillon. Wade said when asked what went wrong in the run game.

Freese gave credit to Vanderbilt’s defense when asked after the game why Auburn was struggling to run the ball.

“I thought Vandy did a good job of playing a lot of bear front and doing a lot of different things that could take some of the game away from us and I thought they did a really good job,” Freese said. “They’ve played really well against runners all year and they certainly were that way today. Whether it was a result of our poor performance or not, I have to watch the film and see.”

For better or worse, Auburn didn’t rely on its best player against Vanderbilt. It’s hard to gauge how much of an impact this had on the game or what Hunter could have done with more carries, but that doesn’t stop us from asking questions.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or write to him at [email protected]m