Auburn Tigers College Football Pregame Quote, 09/11/2023

Obviously, I’m excited that we were able to go to probably one of the toughest trips I think you have in college football, to go play a game on the west coast, and I thought our kids handled it well. I thought they played with great energy and passion and togetherness, and they fought for the 60 minutes. I’m obviously extremely happy to get out of there with a win against another Power Five opponent. I think I saw a stat somewhere that had teams that turned the ball over four times, plus the number of first downs we had, I think it’s like 1-65 or something. Now it’s 2-65, I guess. I could be wrong on the numbers so don’t quote me on that, but you just don’t win many games like that, so we’re very fortunate. But I know this ‚Äì I don’t know that I’ve ever had a season where we didn’t have a game where we felt like, ‘We easily could have lost that game, but boy, our kids found a way,’ and you can build on stuff like that. I’m really proud of our staff and kids.

I don’t think anyone quit believing that we could win the game, and it showed in the way they played. Obviously, the defense had more than their fair share of times that they had to go back out there too quick because of the number of turnovers and lack of production on third down, and it was always, ‘We got you, we got you.’ I’m really proud of that growth that we can use to build on, for sure. They played really well on that side of the ball, and special teams played better than average ‚Äì not great ‚Äì but better than average. Offense was awful. We got the ball in the third quarter, and I don’t know how many minutes were left, but (at the start of) our first possession in the third quarter, we had only (run) 25 offensive plays. I do believe we had a really good plan offensively, particularly in the second half, and I think we would have scored points had we not turned it over two more times. We only had four possessions (in the second half) and those turnovers. You can’t win football games by turning the ball over. We thought we were ripping off some pretty good runs, and we either had a penalty or a turnover for those few possessions that we had in the second half. So, I think there’s some things we can build on for sure, but ultimately, the bottom line is that our kids found a way to win. We celebrate that, and you can write it however you want to write it, but the bottom line is that Auburn Tigers are 2-0 and we celebrate that.

On the response of Payton Thorne and Robby Ashford to rotating QBs at Cal:

I haven’t seen them and talked to them yet today, and obviously everyone on the plane ride was just trying to rest, but they both seem fine. I don’t know that that’s exactly what I wanted it to look like, but we just had no juice, no momentum, and so you’re kind of searching for it. We’ve got to figure that piece of it out. We need Payton to play better, truthfully, too. Now, on the last drive, he played well. Prior to that, I think a few of the throws were inaccurate, and I thought he left the pocket early once. And look, I’m not beating up Payton. He played really well in that last possession, but we do need more consistency there throughout the whole game. Our challenge is to get him and Robby and Holden (Geriner) to that point, and they know that. Robby’s got to get his touches. We had a really good package for him and had a good drive going in that package, and one of our running backs went the wrong way, we created a negative play and got us behind the chains, so it was just one thing after another offensively. Ultimately, it has to start with me and our offensive staff as to why we did some of the things we did. We don’t control the fumbles necessarily, but there were other things that happened that caused us negative plays that maybe we need to coach better.

On lack of taking shots downfield:

We only called three and probably should have called more. Cal played us a little differently. There were times that I thought we had one real shot and we read a different side of the field. Our receivers didn’t win a few of the others we called. They were in man coverage for a bit. They won some of those battles on us.

On being pleased with defensive alignment fixes:

We definitely made progress. It was much better. The effort was incredible. We still have some alignment issues, but every game we are going to have some. I would like for it to be in the single digits, but we were around 10. Some of them were very ticky-tack and hard. You should be lined up at a 30 technique, and you are not quite there at the linebacker. We are being very hard on that right now. Some of them were pretty insignificant and some could have been significant. You are not going to ever completely change. The offense is going to throw something at you that you didn’t prepare for, some motion or some shift. We must make sure are on the same page when that occurs. There were a few of those early in the second half that we were still trying to figure out as the ball was being snapped. We have to continue to work on it, but it was much better.

On what he saw from the offense and play calling:

I called three things in that game. It’s hard. I am not going to lie. I have great confidence in our staff. One game is not something you have to worry about particularly when you have four turnovers and that number of penalties that got us behind the chains. I’m not making any excuses because we have to own what is on the film. When you turn it over four times and you don’t get that many possessions in the game it’s hard. That is where we were. Every time we got an explosive run, like on the reverse, there was another penalty. We did everything we did not do in the first game. We did not have turnovers. We did not have penalties. We did not look like it was the first game offensively, and so I did not take it over. I did call the fade to Rivaldo (Fairweather) and a couple other things. It’s not a dead point at all. I have great confidence in them. We have had a lot of tough talks this morning. I can’t be everywhere, but I have to own everything. I spent a lot of time with our defensive guys last week, and I am going to spend a lot of time with our offensive guys this week. It’s really about us all seeking wisdom on how we can get better, me included. That was our main theme this morning in our truth meeting. How do you seek wisdom? How do you improve our kids’ chances of winning football games and becoming men? We have to help each other. Everyone has assistants in this building ‚Äì assistant O-line coaches, D-line coaches, safety coaches, quarterback coaches. It’s high time that nobody has an ego. Are we doing too much of something? What do we need to do? Who needs the touches? Five (Jay Fair) and six (Ja’Varrius Johnson) for us need more touches. Those two guys are our best receivers. Now, I wish they were bigger because the catch radius is not big. We must improve the others. Those guys are pretty good in space. We have to use those guys more. Rivaldo obviously needs to be utilized. He was in the second half. We have to play at our strengths and make it look better each week. I challenged them this morning with, ‘How are you going to do that?’, and if you need help, I swear I can help. I will draw them up and show you how to make it look different. They have the ability to do that. I mean, it was ugly. You have to take into account the number of turnovers and penalties per possessions versus was it just awful play calls. I did not see many awful play calls. They all had a chance to work. Nothing schematically was off about it, but I think we need a little more balance. We have to figure out what our quarterbacks and receivers can handle. We have got to work on that. We will challenge each other to be better this week as coaches and players.

On talking with Coach Montgomery about play calling:

We are not overreacting to anything. I have great trust in him. We are going to work together this week on the game plan. He doesn’t have an ego. He doesn’t mind if I step in and call it, but I need to probably be in more meetings. Like I said that game went nothing like I expected, which is good and bad, I guess. We worked really hard on how we come up with the right defensive plan for our guys and how we would handle the tempo. Heck if they didn’t go much tempo at all really. They went a few plays but nothing like I was used to from (Jake) Spavital. We never got in our tempo at all because we were never efficient enough on first down to get in it. It was just totally different from what I expected. Again, Phillip is going to be fine and we are going to work together this week and see if we can’t get a great plan in place to not repeat last week’s performance.

On Payton Thorne’s decision making:

We didn’t call enough RPOs so I can’t say that’s on Payton. I just think he was inconsistent with the early throws that we had and that continued. Again, third quarter we didn’t have the ball much or the fourth quarter so the last drive is one we are going to concentrate on and focus on and see if we can’t build on that. But it was inconsistent until that point.

On the progression of the defense with some guys injured:

Yeah, it was a little scary in the second half. We had Keionte (Scott) out and (Jaylin) Simpson out to start the third quarter, which we already had (Nehemiah) Pritchett out, who couldn’t play, so we’re playing a lot of young guys that hadn’t had a ton of reps. Keionte was out until the final drive truthfully, the whole second half, and then (Donovan Kaufman) went out so we were greatly challenged. (Larry) Nixon dinged his hand, his wrist that he had surgery on, and we are thin at linebacker, really thin, so it was quite a challenge. I’m really proud of our kids and the staff. They just kept battling and finding ways to get off the field and get important stops. Did we improve from week one to week two? Absolutely. Wow, are we fixed yet and ready to say we are fixing to dominate and hold every opponent to 10 points? I would like to say that, but that’s not accurate. We have to keep working because tougher tests are coming.

On when injured players might be coming back:

It is too early to tell, I think, on them both. I would love to hope that they both will be ready to go for sure, but it is too early to tell. We’ve had to get through without J.D Rhym so far too this year, and I think he could help us, but it is too early to tell on Monday.

On Kayin Lee taking steps forward:

We think he’s going to be really tough. He is talented and is going to be really good. There’s times I think he is a little unsure about his confidence level and gives too much ground to recall those in the game. Did he play well? Yes. Is he still getting better? Yes. Glad we have him.

On Jay Fair and Ja’Varrius Johnson playing together or on the outside:

Neither are built to play outside, truthfully. Obviously, unless you get 10 personnel one of them will have to if you are going to play them both at the same time. I don’t know if I said that, I said they need to get more touches. Does that look like them playing more at the same time? Maybe. We have to figure that out this week for sure or today.

On building on Saturday’s win at Cal:

A win like that, it’s a tough trip. We will not go on Thursday again if we ever have to do that again. That trip back is really hard. We rolled in here at 10:00 yesterday morning. I don’t know if you can recover immediately the next week for that. I think there is so much to build on. I am still learning this team, and they are still learning me. I was so pleased, there was no panic. It was just, we are going to figure this out somehow, some way and come out of here with a win. Not every team in year one I felt could handle that, and I was not sure about our kids, truthfully. I really thought we were going to go in there and score 30 or 40 points and make it easier on the defense, and Lord knows that didn’t happen. I was so proud of the leadership on that side of the ball that. It was just like, ‘We got you.’ Asante played his tail off, as did others. There is so much to build on, particularly at the point we are at. You should fight to the end regardless of what the result might end up being. That is the way we should keep fighting.

On his relationship with Samford head coach Chris Hatcher:

Hatcher and I have known each other for years. I think he is one of the better offensive coaches in football. He has done a remarkable job there. He will have his kids excited and well prepared to play here I have no doubt, they will test you in the passing game for sure and throw it all around. I think the last time he played here it was every formation you could imagine that he pulled out and had success moving the ball. I have great respect for him as a man and as a coach. I know he will have his guys ready.

On the run defense improving from week one to week two:

The stats are what they are, so they performed. They stopped the run. We absolutely improved from week one to week two. I don’t know if that has any bearing on what you do in week three if you prepare the same way. You better have a great plan and know you have to do it again and again and again. I felt like we had to stop the run and make them one-dimensional. We weren’t sure that either quarterback could all night long throw it and beat us. I am not saying they couldn’t. When you look at two transfer guys and they weren’t used to throwing it at their old school, you kind of just hope in your mind that that is a situation where they can’t throw it enough to beat you. So, let’s be sure we have to stop the run because they have really talented running backs. I thought our kids did a great job of doing that.

On others stepping up in the receiver room:

We haven’t proved we can do it yet. So, until we can prove we can win some one-on-ones and we can throw accurate balls to them, we have got to keep improving that room. I’ve said that since I got here, and that is still the case.

On using opponent words as motivation:

I honestly don’t use that a lot. I heard our kids talking about it, which I don’t think that hurt. I hope he is OK. I know he got hurt. I don’t like our kids to do that. I hope ours don’t ever before games. It did probably fire our guys up a little defensively. I did mention it in my pregame talk. I was comparing it to one of my real-life experiences I had in high school. I don’t think that’s the reason we stopped the run, but it certainly did give them some motivation.

On how the offensive line performed:

I thought they did fine, truthfully, and that is the shame of it. I thought they handled the movements really well. There was one breakdown in protection and the others we caused with either setting the protection wrong or moving out of the pocket too early. I think without the turnovers, you are looking at another 250+ rushing night. So, I thought they were doing a fine job of run blocking.

On what Jalen McLeod brings to the defense:

I think he is about 85 percent, I’d like him to get to 100 percent and then I’d think he’d give us a real boost. But at 85 percent, I think he has made us better. He’s strong at the point of attack, quick-twitched, and can rush the passer. I don’t think he got a sack, but he’s different than what we have been presenting and he helps us all around.

On QB rotation plans:

That’s a big challenge, and I do not like the way the other night went with it. At the same time, I think Robby (Ashford) has to get his touches. That is absolutely on my mind, and we have to figure it out.