Coming off a dominant win, No. 19 Missouri (5-1, 2-1 SEC) returns to SEC play for the school’s 113th Homecoming as it gets a real test to give fans an idea of what the team is actually made of heading into the second half of the season. Missouri is 67-40-5 on Homecoming and has won its last seven Homecoming games.

The Tigers re-entered the top-20 with their win against UMass, but will have a lot of work to do to climb back into the playoff picture. That work starts this week as they face Auburn.

The other Tigers (2-4, 0-3 SEC) enter on a three-game losing streak after dropping a matchup against Georgia 31-13 in Athens last week. Before that, Auburn lost to Arkansas (24-14 on Sept. 21) and Oklahoma (27-21 on Sept. 28), last winning against New Mexico 45-19 on Sept. 14. Auburn’s other win came in the season-opener 73-3 against Alabama A&M.

Missouri opened as 6-point favorites according to Circa Sports.

Here’s a glance at Auburn and what Missouri will see at 11 a.m. Saturday:

When: 11 a.m. CT, Saturday (again)

Where: Faurot Field, Columbia, Mo.

TV: ESPN

Radio: Tiger Radio Network

This is just the fifth time overall and the fourth time since Missouri joined the SEC that the sets of Tigers will face off. Auburn leads the all-time series 3-1 and has won all three games since Missouri became an SEC team.

The last matchup was a 17-14 win for Auburn at Auburn in 2022.

Scoring offense: 30.0 per game (60th nationally)

Scoring defense: 20.83 per game (42nd nationally)

Rushing offense: 165.5 per game (63rd nationally)

Rushing defense: 124.3 per game (49th nationally)

Passing offense: 279.0 per game (27th nationally)

Passing defense: 213.3 per game (62nd nationally)

OFFENSE

Payton Thorne, QB

The 6-foot, 2-inch, 203-pound senior from Naperville, Ill. transferred from Michigan State for his graduate season.

In five games, Thorne has completed 77-of-129 passes (59.7 percent) for 1,238 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.

He’s also a slight rushing threat with 147 yards and two touchdowns on 54 carries.

His best game of the season was the win against Alabama A&M, which, sure ya that makes sense, he completed 13-of-21 passes (61.9 percent) for 322 yards and four touchdowns.

His best game against a real opponent was a pretty similar outing statwise as he completed 21-of-32 passes (65.6 percent) for 338 yards, three touchdowns and an interception against Oklahoma.

His worst game was against California when he completed 14-of-27 passes (51.9 percent) for 165 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions.

He did not play in Auburn’s win against New Mexico.

KeAndre Lambert-Smith, WR

We’ve got another Missouri matchup with a team that focuses heavily on one receiver. Lambert-Smith, a 6-1, 182-pound receiver who transferred from Penn State for his fifth season has nearly a third of the team’s receiving yards on the season with 510 of 1,674. He has 24 of the team’s 106 catches. And has six of the team’s 16 receiving touchdowns.

His best game by far came against Arkansas when he caught five passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns, including a 67-yard score. He has multiple other catches of more than 50 yards this season.

He’s had at least two catches and 30 yards in every game this season and has performances of 2-for-72, 5-for-156, 5-for-77 and 7-for-95 the past four games.

The next highest receiving total is 260 yards on 18 catches with two touchdowns.

Jarquez Hunter, RB

The 5-10, 209-pound senior has had a lot of success with the Tigers, reaching the SEC all-freshman team in 2021 as a true freshman, then he added 675 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore before racking up 909 yards and seven touchdowns last season.

So far this year he has 528 yards on 78 attempts with three touchdowns for an average of 88.0 rushing yards per game.

His best game this season came in the win against New Mexico, where he rushed 20 times for 152 yards and a touchdown.

He hasn’t surpassed 100 rushing yards otherwise, though he rushed 17 times for 97 yards against Oklahoma and had 91 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries last week. He’s not much of a receiving threat out of the backfield, totaling seven catches for 62 yards this season with a single-game-high of three catches coming against California.

DEFENSE

Keldric Faulk, DL

Faulk, a 6-6, 288-pound sophomore played in every game as a true freshman last year and has gotten better this season, leading the team with five sacks for a combined loss of 32 yards. He has seven tackles for loss and 27 total tackles to go with four quarterback hits and one pass batted down.

He had two sacks and eight total tackles against California and two sacks among seven total tackles against Georgia.

Jaylen McLeod, OLB

The 6-1, 236-pound linebacker transfer from Appalachian State has made a mark already in his second season for Auburn. In his first year after transferring, he totaled 5.5 sacks and 48 tackles. So far this year, he is second on the team with 7.5 tackles for loss and three sacks, while racking up 26 total tackles and a pass batted down.

His best game came against Arkansas when he had a season-high seven tackles to go with two tackles for loss, one sack and the batted pass.

Kayin Lee, CB

Auburn has four players with one interception each among the secondary, but the 5-11, 181-pound sophomore corner adds a team-high four batted passes to go with 19 total tackles, so he is who I chose to focus on here.

As a true freshman, Lee played in every game, starting four, and totaled 18 tackles, two tackles for loss and six passes defended to go with a forced fumble.

Lee has three games with five tackles each in five games played, he did not play in the win against New Mexico, and his interception came against Arkansas.

Line of scrimmage

Last time Missouri played a team with talent in the trenches, that matchup wrecked the game for the Tigers on both sides of the ball. Whether Missouri can keep a clean pocket for Brady Cook on offense and cause issues in the backfield for Thorne on defense will play a major role in how the Tigers respond in their first SEC game since getting embarrassed against Texas A&M.

Brady Cook vs. the secondary

Auburn’s passing defense doesn’t rank high nationally, but only allowing 213.3 passing yards per game is still pretty good. Whether Cook is able to get the ball to his receivers efficiently – like he did against UMass, but against a much better team – will be a key for the Tiger offense. I think Missouri’s rushing offense will go as the offensive line goes, so I don’t want to double up on the line being a major matchup, so that leaves Cook and the receivers being able to find space in a way they weren’t against the Aggies.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss this story and so much more.