Bo Nix threw for 275 yards and three touchdowns in a little more than a half to help Bryan Harsin to a successful Auburn coaching debut as the host Tigers romped past overmatched Akron 60-10 Saturday night in the season opener for both teams.
A Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd of over 87,000 saw the Tigers go over the 50-point mark first the first time since a 52-0 blanking of Samford on Nov. 19, 2019. It was their biggest scoring night since a 63-14 win over Purdue in the 2018 Music City Bowl.
Nix completed his first 11 pass attempts and was 18-of-20 in the first half for 255 yards as the Tigers built a 37-0 first-half lead to make things comfortable for Harsin, the former Boise State coach.
Nix finished 20-of-22 after completing both his attempts in Auburn’s opening drive of the third quarter before turning the game over to sophomore T.J. Finley. Finley finished 2-of-5 for 22 yards.
Nix distributed his completions to nine different players, including running back Tank Bigsby, who had a 19-yard reception to go with 119 yards and two touchdowns rushing.
Shaun Shivers scored touchdowns both rushing and receiving, Ja’Varrius Johnson and Kobe Hudson had receiving touchdowns, and Finley and Jarquez Hunter scored rushing touchdowns.
Auburn gave up two first downs to Akron in the game’s opening series but held the Zips to 21 yards rushing and 212 in total offense for the game.
Starter Kato Nelson was 9-of-14 passing for only 62 yards for the Zips before leaving late in the third quarter. Backup DJ Irons had considerably more success in completing all 13 of attempts for 129 yards.
Irons accounted for the Zips’ touchdown with a 4-yard pass to Jonzell Norris early in the fourth quarter. Cory Smigel later added a 40-yard field goal for Akron.
— Field Level Media