ATLANTA, Ga. — Auburn Football opened its season on Saturday in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the 2026 Aflac kickoff game against the Baylor Bears, a team that the Tigers handled in Waco last season. It was significantly less easy for Auburn this time around, but Alex Golesh’s squad managed to gut out a 17-16 win thanks to a heroic goal-line tackle by sophomore safety Eric Winters.
It was a sloppy first half from both sides, with each team turning the ball over twice within the first 30 minutes. Though Auburn held a lead for the majority of the half, the Tigers did not play to the best of their ability. Baylor was consistently able to drive down the field on the Auburn defense, but kept suffering mistakes from quarterback DJ Lagway.
On the Bears’ first drive, Baylor drove deep into Auburn territory before Lagway fumbled while trying to hurdle a defender. The fumble was forced by safety Eric Winters and recovered by his fellow safety Kaleb Harris. The second Lagway turnover also happened in Auburn territory with an interception thrown directly to edge rusher Jared Smith in coverage.
Auburn was able to reach field goal range thanks to a 30-yard reception by Jeremiah Koger, and kicker Alex McPherson putting the Tigers ahead. Auburn would not find the end zone until the 3:51 mark of the second quarter, when running back Jeremiah Cobb capped off a quick five-play drive with a 15-yard rushing touchdown. Baylor answered on the ensuing drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Lagway to Louis Brown IV.
The third and fourth quarters were mostly a back-and-forth defensive slugfest, with neither offense able to score. Baylor finally knotted the game at 10 thanks to a short field goal from kicker Rhett Armstrong on a drive that started following Byrum Brown’s third interception of the game. It was the only game of Brown’s career in which he had thrown three or more interceptions.
Despite that, Brown dug deep and led the Tigers on a 10-play, 75-yard scoring drive that ended with the Auburn signal caller running it in from 11 yards out to give his team a 17-10 lead with 3:21 to play. Baylor answered with a quick drive of its own.
Lagway completed a 27-yard pass to Jaden Porter on a deep post, a design that had been incomplete with Porter open on the play immediately before. That set up the Bears with a first-and-goal from the 4-yard line. Lagway found Gavin Freeman in the flat with nine seconds remaining to trim the deficit to one.
Baylor tried to end the game there, lining up for a two-point conversion to give them the win. Lagway connected with tight end Matthew Klopfenstein, but Auburn safety Eric Winters dragged the big tight end to the ground just inches short of the goal line to give the Tigers a season-opening win.
“Yeah, I mean, [the play] for a young cat, he’s special,” coach Golesh said. “He really is, but he works like that. That’s how he practices. That’s how he comes in the building every day. It’s the same person every day. And for a guy in his second year, he’s special.”
Winters, who led all Auburn freshmen in tackles in 2025, recorded 11 tackles against the Bears, the second-most of any Tiger. His nine solo tackles led Auburn, and he also recorded two tackles for loss and a forced fumble. However, it was not all perfect, as Winters was in the area when Baylor scored its last-second touchdown. Despite that, he had the mental toughness to make the game-winning play on his next rep.
“Coach Durk [DJ Durkin] always says next play mentality,” Winters said. “You know, next play came, made a play to win us the game. Man, it’s the best feeling in the world, leaving this place with a win.”
The Auburn defense was under tremendous strain all evening and allowed 436 total yards on 99 plays. Despite that, the unit still forced three turnovers and did enough to give their team the win, something Golesh was extremely impressed with.
“I think mentality-wise, what Durk has brought to that defense, where you just play the next play and play the next play, and you saw [that] from a body language standpoint,” Golesh said. “There is a lot to clean up, but man, I am excited to watch the film and see our guys just kept resetting, playing, kept resetting and playing, and that is what it takes to win.
Though it was far from a perfect outing in Atlanta, the Tigers managed to leave with a one-point win — Auburn’s first win by a single point since the infamous “Camback” against Alabama. Tiger fans have watched their team repeatedly crumble in close games over the past few seasons under Hugh Freeze, so seeing a team grit out a close win, no matter how ugly, should be an encouragement to the fanbase.
Auburn will be back in action next Saturday for its home opener in Jordan-Hare Stadium against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, who throttled Alcorn State 49-3 in Week 1. The game is scheduled to kick off at 6:45 p.m. CDT on SEC Network.
