Nick Ruffin knew he could get his hands on a punt. All he needed was one more chance.
After missing out on a blocked punt attempt earlier in the game against Texas A&M, Ruffin swore to coach Gus Malzahn he wouldn't miss if given another opportunity.
"I told him, 'let me go get it again; I promise you I'll get there," Ruffin said. "He had enough confidence in me to say, 'Alright, I'm going to give you a chance. I'll let you go get it.'"
Malzahn's confidence in his senior safety was rewarded, as Ruffin burst through Texas A&M's punt protection team and leaped, right arm outstretched as he got his hand on Shane Tripucka's punt attempt late in the first half of No. 14 Auburn's 42-27 win at Kyle Field.
Ruffin's block led to a touchdown on Malik Miller's recovery in the end zone, and it completely changed the complexion of what was, to that point, a close game.
"I thought that was huge and gave us some momentum because that first half was extremely challenging and there was a lot of things going wrong," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said.
Auburn trailed Texas A&M, 13-7, with 2:39 to go in the first half Saturday at Kyle Field. After the Tigers responded with a quick, four-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to take the lead with 1:36 remaining in the second quarter, they decided they wanted more.
Following the ensuing kickoff, with two timeouts still in his back pocket, Malzahn called time after Auburn's defense got stops on first and second down in hopes of having one more chance to score before the half. Texas A&M quarterback Nick Starkel ran on third-and-7 to set up fourth-and-4 in the final minute. The Aggies bled the clock, calling timeout with 29 seconds to play before punting the ball away.
On Auburn's sideline, the plan was already in action.
"We've been talking about blocking punts for the last two weeks," Malzahn said. "Last year we came extremely close, and coach (Tim) Horton and his special teams staff really worked hard this week. We put some different personnel out there, and we went after it early. They got it off in 1.6 (seconds); they really got off. So we felt like that was a great opportunity to do that (again)."
The Aggies took the field out of the timeout, with Tripucka back deep to punt and a three-man wall protecting him. On Auburn's prior punt-block attempt, Ruffin noticed a weakness in the wall. The Aggies' three players weren't "really meshing together" after the snap, and Ruffin was confident he could get off the line fast enough to make it between them and come up with the block.
Auburn brought its punt-block unit on the snap, and Ruffin came flying through the wall. His block was the first by Auburn since the 2013 Iron Bowl, and following a mad scramble by a horde of Auburn players, Miller's recovery in the end zone produced the first punt block for a touchdown by the Tigers since Tre Smith against Florida in 2006.
"I really heard it, I didn't see it," said receiver Darius Slayton, who was among the scrum of Tigers pouncing toward the ball in the end zone. "I kind of came through late, and I heard his hand, and I was looking for the ball. I was scrambling around, trying to get to the ball in the end zone."
The touchdown gave Auburn a 21-13 lead heading into halftime and swung momentum in its favor at the break, helping turn a six-point deficit into an eight-point lead in the span of 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Afterward, Malzahn said it was reminiscent of 2014, when the Aggies blocked a field goal and returned it for a touchdown to seize momentum at the half of their eventual 41-38 win against the Tigers.
"There was a minute and 36 seconds and 14 points were scored in that time, and that was a game-changer," Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. "... We talked about that at halftime, it being a one-possession game, but that is why we let it run down and took a timeout to take some time out of it. They got the block for the touchdown, and that was disappointing, but you still have to play. You still have plenty of time to do something about that, and we didn't respond."
Ruffin's block also rattled Tripucka, who later had a third-quarter punt attempt ricochet off the back of one of his blockers and set up Auburn near midfield, leading to the Tigers' fourth unanswered touchdown.
"Nick Ruffin made a big-time play," Malzahn said. "We talk about seniors stepping up in big games and making big-time plays, and that was a huge play in the game. It just kind of changed the whole momentum of the game going into halftime."
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.