Welcome back to 2015.
Auburn will play in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl against 11-2 Houston. This is the second time Auburn has played in the Birmingham Bowl, with the first being a 31-10 win over 9-4 Memphis back in 2015.
This time, things are a little more difficult.
No. 21 Houston (No. 20 in the CFP rankings) is a much better team than Memphis was. The Cougars just lost to No. 4 Cincinnati 35-20 in the American Athletic Conference Championship game and were riding an 11-game win streak in the contest.
Houston has a strong passing game led by quarterback Clayton Tune (3,263 passing yards, 28 touchdowns) and wide receiver Nathaniel Dell (80 receptions, 1,179 receiving yards, 12 touchdowns). Dell just had 152 yards against the second best passing defense in FBS (Cincinnati, giving up 168.3 passing yards allowed per game).
With a hobbled quarterback, no offensive coordinator, and a weak secondary, this is going to be a very tough matchup for 6-6 Auburn and Bryan Harsin.
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