Vanderbilt Preparing for Heavy Dose of Auburn's Jarquez Hunter

Common sense tells us Hugh Freeze unleashes the Halloween nightmare of Jarquez Hunter on Vanderbilt once again, but you just never know.

One of the few times Auburn's Jarquez Hunter was spotted on the ground after rushing for 278 yards against Kentucky. / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

If Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze is looking to prove he's the smartest guy in the room, perhaps it's best that he sticks to the recently established formula when they face off with the 5-3 Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday.

Turning round and handing the ball to stud running back Jarquez Hunter rang the register up against Kentucky to the tune of 278 yards last week.

Of course, the consensus has been that Freeze waited past due until he unleashed the SEC's most dynamic runner, but there's really no time left to cry over spilt milk.

Hunter carries a very real threat for every team he will face going down the stretch - a clear and present danger which has Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea more than a little concerned ahead of this weekend's encounter.

“He’s just a physical runner,” Lea declared this week. “He runs behind his pads really well. He keeps his balance. Reminds me a lot of [former Vanderbilt/Kentucky back] Ray Davis that way. He just has the knack for patience and a cut and the ability to accelerate. We can’t emphasize body contact enough in our tackling.”

Hunter's unique ability to gut teams for bigger gains is bound to have NFL scouts on high alert, he's a lot more than just a power back.

Lea suffered through another Hunter masterclass when Vanderbilt faced the Tigers last season. Auburn's then-junior running back broke free for 67 and 56-yard en route to 183 yards and two touchdowns.

That memory has stuck firmly with Lea until now, so suffering through a repeat performance from Hunter would be a Halloween nightmare he would wholeheartedly like to avoid.

“[Hunter] had two huge runs that were just brutal,” Lea said of last season's experience defending against Hunter. “Part of that was leverage of the defense, the structure in the defense … and part of that is he’s a really good player. He’s going to run through tackles, and if you don’t have your body into contact, again, he’s going to bounce off you and he’s got the ability to accelerate.”

Vanderbilt slipped out of the AP top 25 after narrowly losing 27 - 24 to fifth-ranked Texas last weekend, so they will have plenty of their own motivation to help them get back on track.

Quite clearly, if Freeze opts to play bully football and run Hunter 20+ times again, Lea is going to fight fire with fire with some extra physical play on defense.

Much will come to rest with what Freeze opts to do with his own gameplan, having found some success by committing to the run game, in theory the Auburn boss should be loathed to overly tinker.

Having said that, this is coach Freeze we are talking about, so perhaps we should expect the unexpected.