Auburn running back JaTarvious Whitlow out 4-6 weeks after suffering knee injury

Following their loss to the Florida Gators on Saturday, the Auburn Tigers were in need of some positivity heading into the bye week. Unfortunately for them, they were not handed anything close to it. Tuesday brought the news that star running back JaTarvious Whitlow will be out for the next 4-6 weeks after sustaining a knee injury.

Justin Ferguson, the Tigers’ beat reporter for The Athletic, reported the news of Whitlow’s injury on Tuesday evening:

This is an enormous blow to the Auburn rushing attack and their offense in general. Whitlow had accumulated 544 rushing yards through the team’s first six games. That total ranks second in the SEC behind Mississippi State Bulldogs running back Kylin Hill. Whitlow had also gotten up to 4.95 yards per carry and had seven rushing touchdowns, the most in the conference through the first six weeks of the season.

Auburn will now have to turn to some combination of Kam Martin and Shaun Shivers going forward at running back, and Bo Nix and Joey Gatewood are likely to have even more rushing opportunities over the next four to six weeks.