9/22/22 Auburn articles

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Auburn football coach Bryan Harsin's standing in AU locker room? Missouri will show us all

Chase Goodbread, The Tuscaloosa News

Wed, September 21, 2022 at 2:55 PM

Welcome to SEC Unfiltered, the USA TODAY NETWORK's newsletter on SEC sports. Look for this newsletter in your inbox Monday through Friday. Today, Tuscaloosa News sports columnist Chase Goodbread takes over:

Missouri football as … a measuring stick?

Ranked at the bottom of this week's SEC Power Rankings, the Tigers aren't exactly the program that can be counted on to expose every weakness in an opponent. And they're not scaring anyone coming off a 34-17 win over Abilene Christian.

 

The Tigers of the SEC West were drummed at home by Penn State last week, feeding ongoing speculation about whether Harsin will last as Auburn's coach. He survived the school's offseason investigation into his treatment of players to the extent that he wasn’t fired in its immediate aftermath, but he entered 2022 coaching for his continued survival. Then the athletic director that hired him, Allen Greene, resigned. And now, an embarrassing home loss to the Nittany Lions has compounded Harsin's plight before his team's SEC slate has even begun.

If Auburn's players are Harsin believers, it'll be evident in the passion they play with against Missouri (2-1) on Saturday (11 a.m. CT, ESPN). If that's indeed the feeling in the locker room, losing to PSU will evoke an emotional response from a team fighting for its coach against Missouri. But if players aren't fully behind Harsin, a flat performance could easily follow. There's body language for that, too, and uninspiring play has a way of making itself equally obvious. Auburn's home crowd can be as raucous as any, but like any home crowd, it will take its cue from the players on the field.

And regardless of Missouri's talent or chance of winning (Eli Drinkwitz's team is a 7-point underdog), the game might reveal more about Auburn football's future than its immediate present.

Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

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247sports.com

Puckett says Tigers recovered from first loss and focused on SEC opener

Mark Murphy

3-4 minutes

AUBURN, Alabama–As one of the more experienced players in Auburn’s secondary, safety Zion Puckett said on Wednesday that his Tigers have moved on from their disappointing game three loss and are focused on Saturday’s SEC opener vs. the Missouri Tigers. Kickoff for the game is set for 11 a.m. CDT at Jordan-Hare Stadium with coverage on ESPN.

For Puckett, a 6-0, 207 junior, he will be lined up against an offense that features dual-threat quarterback Brady Cook, who is Missouri’s leading rusher. A redshirt sophomore, Cook is averaging 6.1 yards per carry and has completed 54-84 passes for 621 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions thrown.

“They do a pretty good job of mixing things up depending on the certain down and distance, and where they are on the field,” Puckett said. “I feel like once we lock in on our keys we will be able to communicate everything and we will play fast.

“Far as I'm concerned right now, I think once we make sure we do our keys and check everything out, I think we'll be pretty good,” added Puckett, who said the defense has been working on improving its on the field columniation after having problems with that vs. Penn State.

For both Auburn and Missouri the game is the conference opener. Both sides are 2-1 with wins over opponents they were expected to beat and lopsided losses to the only Power-5 opponent each has faced. Missouri lost 40-12 in game two at Kansas State and Auburn lost 41-12 to Penn State. Missouri’s wins came at home vs. Louisiana Tech (52-24) and Abilene Christian (34-17).

This will just the second regular season matchup between the programs. Auburn won at Columbia, 51-14, in 2017. The Tigers also defeated Mizzou in the 2013 SEC Championship Game 59-42 and lost 34-17 to Missouri in the 1973 Sun Bowl.

Asked what the Tigers need to improve defensively after collapsing in the second half vs. Penn State, Puckett said, “I think the biggest thing we need to get better at is communicating. That is the one thing I would say. Other than that, I feel like there were little things here and there, but we did pretty good. I know it didn't turn out the way we wanted, but we can move on from that.”

Puckett said the mood of his team was “down” and “sad” after suffering its first loss, but noted that the players have moved on from that after Sunday’s video study and practice followed by a day away from football on Monday. “We started off great Tuesday so I feel like people washed that game away and people focused on the next game and just keep rolling with it,” he said.

Missouri’s offense is a familiar one to Puckett, he pointed out. Eli Drinkwitz, head coach at Missouri, trained under former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn and runs a similar system that Puckett and other veteran defenders have practiced against many times. “I definitely see the similarities,” he said. “I just feel like once you learn who you’re playing and your opponent, you’ll be fine with it.

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“It’s something we have been through a few years,” he added. “People that have been here with Malzahn, I think that helps us a lot.”

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ESPN analyst is surprised by Auburn's lack of defensive production

Taylor Jones

3 minutes

Auburn’s defense has not been as effective as expected through three games.

That fact was telling during Auburn’s recent 41-12 loss to Penn State, as the Tigers allowed the Nittany Lions to be just as successful passing the football, as they were running it on their way to gaining 477 yards of total offense.

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Auburn’s defense failed to create both a turnover and a sack in the game, which allowed Penn State to piece together more effective drives. The season production has, unfortunately, been consistent with their play against Penn State. Through three games, Auburn has only recorded four sacks and has yet to record a turnover.

Former Auburn great and current ESPN College Football analyst Cole Cubelic was a recent guest on the local sports talk show “Sportscall”, where he discussed his postgame thoughts following Auburn’s loss to Penn State. Cubelic says that he is surprised by the lack of defensive production to this point.

“I did not think that (the lack of sacks) would be a problem this year, I thought that getting to the quarterback would be something that Auburn would have good success with,” Cubelic said. “It’s been two consecutive years that they have not had a sack against Penn State. Penn State has not had offensive lines that have been knocking on the door of winning the Joe Moore Award. It’s collectively finding ways to make things happen, finding ways to make plays, finding ways to get the ball back into your hands.”

When reviewing the film of Auburn’s defense each week, Cubelic says that a quick way for Auburn to create more turnovers is to be more creative.

“(Auburn has) not been opportunistic and have gone out to find different ways to take the football away. A lot of turnovers are forced. You jar the football loose, that happened with Owen Pappoe and Sean Clifford, the ball just happened to roll to a Penn State player over by the sideline,” Cubelic said. “Some guys are attempting to make those plays, attempting to make things happen. But, at the same time, you have to go find ways to get the football. Whether it’s in the air or getting to the quarterback, it has been a problem.”

Auburn currently ranks 10th in the SEC in total defense by allowing 359 yards per game. This week’s opponent, Missouri, averages 220 passing yards per game while rushing for 202 yards per contest.

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'That's our identity': Can Auburn reestablish run game in SEC play?

Published: Sep. 21, 2022, 9:29 a.m.

5-6 minutes

For all the offseason discussion of wanting to be a hardnosed, run-first offense built around Tank Bigsby, Auburn’s offense lost its way in last weekend’s lopsided loss to Penn State.

The Tigers struggled to establish the run early and abandoned it late. Now, can they find their way back to the path that was supposed to lead them this season as they open SEC play on Saturday against Missouri?

“We should be able to run the ball against any defense and go from there,” right tackle Austin Troxell said. “That’s our identity as an offense, and that’s what we want to be as an offensive line, is able to run the ball consistently no matter what looks we’re getting.”

Read more Auburn football: Sources: T.J. Finley expected to miss Missouri game due to injury

2023 Auburn football schedule released

What to make of Auburn’s “lack of focus” in first big game of season

Auburn couldn’t do that against Penn State, which limited the Tigers to just 119 rushing yards during the 41-12 affair at Jordan-Hare Stadium. When you take out sacks, of which Penn State racked up six, Auburn still finished with just 160 rushing yards — and its running backs accounted for only 69 of those yards on the ground on 16 combined carries.

That included just nine carries for 39 yards from Bigsby, the preseason first-team All-SEC running back who was supposed to be the foundation upon which Auburn’s offense was built this season. It’s hard to create a stable offense when that foundation is poorly established, as was the case last Saturday.

Bigsby had five carries in the first quarter but didn’t get one in the entire second quarter. His lone second-quarter touch was on a 37-yard catch-and-run on the second-to-last play of the half.

“The whole game, we couldn’t really get into a rhythm run-game wise,” Troxell said. “Penn State played a good game. We played poor. We need to get better going forward. We’ve got to have a good week of practice this week, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Auburn finished the game with a skewed run-pass split, with the 16 carries for the running backs and all but a few of the quarterbacks’ 20 combined rushing attempts coming on designed passing plays. The Tigers threw 38 passes, had six more called pass plays that resulted in sacks, plus the scrambles from T.J. Finley and Robby Ashford.

It was Auburn’s fewest handoffs in the backfield since last year’s LSU game, when Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter combined for 15 carries (while quarterback Bo Nix added 12 for a career-best 74 yards and a touchdown in the win in Death Valley).

“We want to run the football, but every game is different,” Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. “You guys don’t sit in the meetings and all that and look at the gameplan and what they’re trying to do, too. There’s really very little understanding of what their defense was trying to get done as well. That dictates the game. We can run into 9-10 guys sometimes if we need to.

“Our coaches, that’s why we put together game plans. You have your openers, you have your plays you want to hit in the first half. That’s exactly what we tried to do. If we execute some of those plays, it’s going to look a lot different at the end of the day.”

Auburn couldn’t execute against Penn State, and after a 17-0 third quarter turned a one-possession halftime deficit into a 31-6 Nittany Lions lead, the Tigers all but abandoned the run game in the second half. Bigsby’s final carry came midway through the third quarter, and Auburn ran the ball just eight more times the rest of the game — all of them with the ball in Ashford’s hands.

Auburn has a chance to get back to its roots this weekend as it opens SEC play against Missouri. The two teams will meet at 11 a.m. (ESPN) in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Missouri ranks in the middle of the pack in the SEC (seventh) and top-50 nationally in rushing defense this season, giving up just 117.3 yards per game. That number is skewed by an impressive season-opening effort against Louisiana Tech in which Missouri allowed just 8 yards rushing, but in the team’s only Power 5 game so far this season (and its only other road game), it gave up 235 yards and four touchdowns on the ground (on 5.47 yards per carry) in a loss to Kansas State.

That could bode well for an Auburn offense that will be without starting quarterback T.J. Finley as it aims to reestablish its “one-one punch” of Bigsby and Jarquez out of the backfield.

“It’s huge for our offense, the run game and being physical up front,” Troxell said. “That’s our offense.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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Auburn 'working through' starting QB decision after Finley injury

Nathan King

4 minutes

AUBURN, Alabama — Auburn coach Bryan Harsin wants to keep things as vague as possible for Missouri in terms of who he may trot out at quarterback in Auburn's SEC opener Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Harsin remained noncommittal Wednesday both about T.J. Finley's injury and whether backup Robby Ashford is being cemented as the starter in his place. Auburn Undercover, among various other outlets, reported Tuesday that Finley sustained a shoulder injury against Penn State and is not expected to be available when the Tigers open SEC competition (11 a.m. CST, ESPN).

"We're working through who's going to be the guy at every position," Harsin said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference. "We talked about competition earlier in the week. Who's going to start for us? We'll see."

When asked directly whether Finley is practicing this week, Harsin said that it wouldn't be incorrect to say his starting quarterback has been "at practice" with his teammates.

"All those guys are at practice," he said. "Every guy's at practice — unless a guy has a season-ending injury, or they're in trouble — those would be the only two things that would keep a guy from being at practice."

In three starts — with Ashford blended in — Finley, a former LSU transfer, is completing 62.3 percent of his passes with one passing touchdown and five total turnovers. Against Penn State, he injured his shoulder, and Harsin handed the keys to Ashford for the majority of the second half, clarifying that Finley's injury had little bearing on his decision to make a change at quarterback. Ashford led Auburn on its only touchdown drive in the fourth quarter in a 41-12 loss, and is completing 51.7 percent of his passes on the year, with one touchdown and two picks. He's also given the Tigers a dual-threat element in the ground game, currently second on the team with 158 yards.

Harsin said after the loss to Penn State that he and his staff "talked about" putting in Texas A&M transfer Zach Calzada in the second half. But Auburn's coaches ultimately made the decision to stick with Ashford and attempt to let him gather some rhythm within the passing game.

“We'll see," Harsin said after the game about Calzada moving forward. "We'll evaluate everything as we go into this week. ... It's not one player. It's never just one guy. It comes back to an entire team effort — or a lack thereof. ... I'm not going to put all the pressure and reasons on one particular player."

When asked at his press conference Monday whether Calzada is healthy enough to play and be available against Missouri, Harsin responded that the transfer quarterback and former SEC West starter is "competing like everybody else."

Auburn's true freshman quarterback and former 4-star recruit, Holden Geriner, appeared to exit preseason camp as the No. 4 option on the depth chart but could move up a couple rungs if both Finley and Calzada can't go.

Auburn’s quarterbacks this season are now a combined 58.5% passing, with two touchdowns and six interceptions.

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Against Penn State, Auburn's pass protection would have been detrimental for any quarterback, as the Nittany Lions were in the backfield on most passing plays. According to College Football Film room, Penn State registered a quarterback pressure on 61.8% of Auburn's dropbacks.

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Harsin has now entered the realm of “coach speak”.