Cats Illustrated is nearing the midway point in its series of too-early season previews of Kentucky's 2020 football opponents.
Today we're shining the spotlight on the Auburn Tigers, a team that is usually formidable out of the SEC West, but one that the Wildcats rarely have the opportunity to compete against.
Recent Series History: Because the SEC is divided into divisions and especially since the league's expansion to 14 teams, the rotating East/West matchups mean that programs such as those at Kentucky and Auburn rarely see one another.
The last time UK took on Auburn it was a dramatic 30-27 win for the Tigers in Lexington during the 2015 season much earlier in Mark Stoops tenure. That was the year before Kentucky's first bowl game under Stoops.
Prior to that the most recent meeting was 2010, when Cam Newton defeated Kentucky 37-34, also in Lexington. That was during Auburn's national championship season.
Kentucky's last win in the series was during the 2009 season when Randall Cobb helped the Wildcats to a 21-14 win at Auburn.
The all-time series record is 26-6-1 in Auburn's favor.
Apparent Strengths: Bo Nix re-wrote the Auburn freshman passing record books and should have an even better season in 2020. He will have the good fortune of throwing to Seth Williams, one of the top receivers in college football. Those two have the talent and now the experience to tip close games in the Tigers' direction with big or timely plays. Anthony Schwartz is one of the fastest players in college football and could have a big year, too.
Incoming elite recruit Cartavious Bigsby could ignite the ground game. This could be one of the most balanced Auburn offenses in quite some time because it should be able to keep defenses honest.
While Auburn's defense has to replace a lot of key faces the Tigers always have talent and speed on that side of the ball.
Apparent Weaknesses: It's hard to know what to say about the Auburn offensive line. It's probably not going to be one of the best units you have seen from the Tigers in the trenches as four starters must be replaced. This is probably not a big strength but also not a big weakness, but for a program with national aspirations, such as the Tigers, there are questions.
On the flip side, Auburn has to replace quite a bit up front. The Carolina Panthers selected Derrick Brown with the No. 7 pick in the NFL Draft. The Auburn d-line of 2019 was not quite the dominant unit that everyone expected it to be but there's still a lot of talent missing that must be replaced. Nobody will expect the Tigers to be porous up front but there are questions.
The back end of the defense is a question mark with perhaps less obvious upside. A lot of production is gone from the secondary.
How the Matchup Looks: Ordinarily Auburn takes a backseat to very few programs in the country in terms of line play but Kentucky could match up pretty well with the Tigers on both sides of the football and the matchup between the UK offensive front and an unproven Auburn defensive line is especially intriguing if you're looking for optimism.
However, the Nix-to-Williams combination will be one of the biggest pass game tests Kentucky has seen in quite some time. As good as UK's secondary was last season, against Florida and Tennessee there was room for improvement so this will be a big test for the Wildcats.
If this is a grind-it-out, low scoring game then Kentucky should be right in the thick of things even in a hostile road atmosphere. UK is accustomed to games like that, and winning them, and Auburn never shies away from that kind of smashmouth football. However, UK's chances might hinge on keeping up in the pass game. Can Terry Wilson and his receivers exploit a green secondary, and can UK slow down a dynamic Auburn air attack?
