The Auburn Tigers kicked off their 2018 season with a victory over the Washington Huskies. In doing so, Auburn collected a Top 10 win over one of the best teams in the country. Now, after picking that win up and shaking demons in Atlanta, they look to their home dwelling to get things started on The Plains.

Auburn will have their first game of the season at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. They will be welcoming the Alabama State Hornets of the SWAC to town for a late morning tilt.

The Tigers have done favorably in home openers over the last decade or so. Since 2005, they are 10-2 in such contests. The lone losses were to the 2005 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the 2016 Clemson Tigers. There’s no shame in losing to the National Champs in Clemson, although maybe there was some shame in losing to an eventual 7-5 Yellow Jackets team. They did have Calvin Johnson, in ALL fairness.

Alabama State enters this contest with an 0-1 mark. They fell to the UTSA Roadrunners last week by the score of 26-13. Jujuan Young-Battle struggled a bit, going 11-18 for 102 yards, but failed to reach the end zone. Quinterris Toppings stepped in and went 2-5 for 40 yards, but did successfully find the end zone on a passing TD to receiver Palmer Graham.

The one to watch for the Hornets is running back Khalid Thomas. Thomas is coming off a game in which he averaged 7.8 yards per carry, amassed 93 yards and picked up a rushing TD. He was by far their top performer and should be keyed in on by the Auburn defense. For their sake, he doesn’t replicate the performance of Myles Gaskin a week ago, as Gaskin played terrifically.

Nevertheless, Alabama State should be no problem for Aubie & Co., with all due respect. Auburn has a huge matchup with the LSU Tigers next week, so this will prove to be nothing more than a tuneup.

HOW TO WATCH AUBURN VS. ALABAMA STATE

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT

TV: SEC Network+

Commentators: Mark Neely, Barrett Jones, Taylor Davis

Radio: Auburn Tigers Radio Affiliates

Streaming: This game can be found on WatchESPN.