AUBURN | Auburn had a comfortable 52-3 lead over Alabama A&M at halftime. The third and fourth quarters were downsized from 15 to 10 minutes apiece.

A lot of coaches would have gone into a shell on offense, running the ball and running the clock.

But Hugh Freeze couldn’t afford to do that in the Tigers’ opening game of the season.

Auburn is breaking in a number of freshmen and transfers on both sides of the ball with two new coordinators directing the units.

“It’s a balancing act, because the last thing you ever want to be seen, you know, like we were trying to do something that was unsportsmanlike,” said Freeze. “But it’s Game 1 and Hank (Brown) needs to run the offense and Holden (Geriner) needs to run the offense, and Malcolm Simmons needs to know what RPO to run.

“So we just kind of let them. We didn’t intentionally throw any deep shots. They jumped offsides and obviously that’s what we do on that. But the other throws were truthfully just in the RPO game and just trying to run the offense.”

Brown, who won the backup quarterback job during fall camp, played five plays in the third quarter and three more in the fourth, completing 3 of 5 passes for 96 yards including a 57-yard touchdown to Malcolm Simmons and a 37-yard touchdown to Sam Jackson V.

Geriner, the No. 3 quarterback, played the final two drives of the fourth quarter, completing 2 of 2 passes for 33 yards.

Simmons, who also recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown in his first college game, gained important experience from AU continuing to run its offense.

He also sees a benefit in AU continuing to push the ball down the field on passing plays and how it brings balance to the offense.

“With us throwing the ball, it’ll open up the box. Then we run the ball, it’s going to open up the receivers to go win our one-on-ones and score,” said Simmons.

Auburn returns to action next Saturday against California. Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.