Five for Barber

AUBURN, Ala. | Have yourself a day, Peyton BarberClick [rl]Here to view this Link..

Auburn's sophomore running back scored five touchdowns, the most since Carnell Williams had six against Mississippi State in 2003, to lead the Tigers to a 35-21 win over San Jose State Saturday afternoon at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

"The thing that stands out to me about Peyton is it is very important to him," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "He reminds me of Cameron Artis-Payne, about the importance of the game, the team, and everything that goes with it. He shows great toughness. He ran the ball extremely well and hard.

"For the most part he has had good ball skills. I think we put the one ball on the ground and he got it back, but he has really been the leader of our offense so far."

Barber added a career-high 147 yards on 28 carries, with 88 of those yards coming in the fourth quarter.

"It's a blessing, that's pretty much all I can say," Barber said. "I have to give all the thanks to the offensive linemen and Coach Malzahn and also the three-backs.

"This is something I've been waiting on so when I feel myself getting tired, I tell myself to keep moving forward. This is something you've been waiting on so now's your time."

TURNOVERS, KICK RETURNS KEY: If not for four turnovers and 142 kickoff return yards, Auburn might have suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Spartans. At the least, it would have been a much closer game.

"I felt that the keys to the game were that the defense forced four turnovers and gave the offense some short fields," Malzahn said. "There were three kickoff returns that were impact plays in the game."

Auburn converted two of the turnovers into touchdowns and started drives at the SJSU 39, 24 and 45-yard lines thanks to two kickoff returns by Rudy Ford for 81 yards and a 61-yard return by Blake Countess on the opening kick.

"The big thing that stood out to me was the four turnovers," Malzahn said. "If you get four turnovers, I don't care how many yards you give up, you still have a good chance of winning. We were very opportunistic."

San Jose State out-gained Auburn 406-342 in total yards including a 234-182 difference in rushing. The Spartans had 22 first downs compared to 15 for the Tigers. Auburn started five of its 10 drives in SJSU territory.

A LITTLE EXPLOSION: A big emphasis for Auburn this week was explosive plays. After producing just eight plays of over 20 yards in the first four games, the offense had five Saturday. Barber and Roc Thomas had a part in four of them.

"We talked about explosive plays," Malzahn said. "I think Ricardo Louis made one of the big plays in the game. He was covered, Sean had to hold it as long as he could, and they had an extra guy coming through the gap, and Ricardo made one of the bigger plays of the game right before halftime to give us a little bit of breathing room."

Sean White completed a 42-yard pass to Thomas and a 31-yard pass to Louis. Thomas had a 22-yard run while Barber had 36 and 28-yard runs in the fourth quarter.

"As the game goes on I feel like I get stronger," Barber said.

QUICK HITTERS:

Starting for a second-straight game, White completed 6-of-10 passes for 108 yards. Two of his incompletions were drops. He also rushed for 18 yards on four carries. "I think he did some good things," Malzahn said. "He competed and did some good things. We will keep taking this thing week-to-week like we have been doing it."

Freshman safety Tim Irvin didn't play due to an undisclosed injury. He was on the sidelines but didn't dress out.

Sophomore kicker Daniel Carlson had a rough game, missing both of his field goal attempts from 55 and 25 yards.

Ford led Auburn with 14 tackles (11 solo) and a forced fumble. Linebacker Kris Frost was second with 12 tackles.

Cassanova McKinzy was back in the starting lineup, but moved to the Buck linebacker position for SJSU. He finished with four tackles, 1.0 tackle-for-loss, 1.0 sack and three quarterback hurries. "I just felt like we need a little extra right there since we didn't have Carl Lawson," Malzahn said. "We will see how he graded out and see what Will wants to do moving forward."

Malzahn said he's still hopeful Lawson returns before the end of the season. Lawson was on the sidelines with crutches during Saturday's game.

Running back Kerryon Johnson started along with Barber in Auburn's backfield. Johnson was also used as a Wildcat quarterback finishing with 22 rushing yards on five carries.

Linebacker JaViere Mitchell started for the first time in his career.

Auburn recovered all four of its fumbles during the game. "There is no doubt we have to correct that," Malzahn said. "There were some close things, especially the one going in right there. I think our quarterback had something to do with a couple of them. He has to protect the football."

Auburn had just one penalty for 15 yards in the game. SJSU had two for 15 yards. "That was a huge focus of ours that we talked about," Malzahn said. "We can't beat ourselves. We can't be behind the chains and I think we talked about that Tuesday. We have to have the plus plays on first down and I thought for the most part that we did that today."