From Auburn Sports Information...
Auburn opens the 2010 Southeastern Conference season Thursday night when the Tigers visit Mississippi State. Both teams rolled to victories in their respective season openers last Saturday, as Auburn defeated Arkansas State 52-26 while Mississippi State thumped Memphis, 49-7. The game will be nationally televised by ESPN.
Auburn is 43-28-5 in SEC openers, including a 16-1 mark in its last 17 league openers...
Auburn is 6-2 all-time in Thursday night games, including a 4-0 record in SEC games...
Auburn leads the series with Mississippi State, 58-23-2, and has won 21 of the last 28 in the series...
Thursday's game will be a battle of the two top-ranked teams in the nation in passing efficiency...
Cameron Newton leads the SEC in rushing (171.0) and total offense (357.0), and was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week after accounting for five TDs in the season opener...
Auburn has totaled at least 500 yards of offense in five of Gus Malzahn's 14 games as offensive coordinator, after not reaching that mark in its last 40 games prior to his arrival...
Six of Auburn's seven touchdown drives against Arkansas State, including all five in the first half, took less than two minutes...
Auburn piled up 367 rushing yards against Arkansas State, which is the fifth-best mark in the nation...
Auburn played 12 true freshman in the season opener, which tied for the fourth-highest total in the nation, and 17 players overall made their Auburn debuts during the opener...
Auburn has four offensive linemen that have combined for 113 career starts, led by senior Lee Ziemba, who has started all 39 games since arriving as a true freshman...
Senior kicker Wes Byrum is just 63 points away from becoming Auburn's all-time leading scorer. He currently ranks fifth with 250 career points...
Auburn is the only school in the SEC that returns its entire full-time coaching staff intact from the 2009 season...
Auburn has won 57 consecutive games when scoring 30 or more points in a game, dating back to a 56-49, four-overtime loss to Georgia in 1996...
Auburn has 11 players on its squad that have already graduated, which is second most in the nation among FBS schools...
Auburn is 43-28-5 in SEC openers, and is 16-1 in its last 17 league openers. The Tigers had their 14-game winning streak in openers snapped in 2007 by Mississippi State...
In its last 12 SEC openers, Auburn has outscored its opponents, 386-136...
This is the seventh straight year Auburn has opened SEC play with Mississippi State. The Tigers won 49-24 last year, 3-2 in 2008, 34-0 in 2006, 28-0 in 2005 and 43-14 in 2004, with MSU winning 19-14 in 2007...
Mississippi State running backs coach Greg Knox was Auburn's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 1999-2008...
The Game will be televised by ESPN and in the booth will be Rece Davis (play-by-play), Craig James (analyst), Jesse Palmer (analyst) and Jenn Brown (sidelines)...
The game will be carried on radio across the Auburn ISP Network and on XM Sirius Channel 143.