Some college football teams are really good at finding ways to get creative. The sport inherently needs teams to zig when others zag in an attempt to catch opponents off guard every now and then, and while it ends in disaster sometimes, it’s beautiful when these little wrinkles end up working out.
An example of this came on Saturday afternoon as 13th-ranked Auburn played host to Arkansas. During the first quarter, the Tigers came out in the Wildcat, which led to an 11-yard game. The fun wrinkle here was who ran the Wildcat β instead of snapping the ball directly to a hyper-agile running back, or a wide receiver who has a rocket for an arm, Auburn turned to 6’2, 300 pound true freshman tight end J.J. Pegues. Watch the young man rumble:
THE SPIN! THE HURDLE π
"Look at the big man, look at that athleticism!" pic.twitter.com/DH8I3P7KSX
— ESPN (@espn) October 10, 2020
This wasn’t Pegues’ first carry of the year β he registered two last week against Georgia β but this was easily his best. A four-star athlete recruit in the class of 2020, Pegues showed off his impressive athleticism by planting his foot in the ground for a spin move and hurdling a defender. Both of those would have been impressive no matter who did it, but for a dude of his size (and, not to mention, a true freshman with that kind of football IQ) to pull this off is something else. I hope Auburn gives him the ball a lot more this season.