Auburn is fresh off its bye week and ready to take on the final stretch of its 2021 season.
No. 18 Auburn (5-2, 2-1 SEC) will begin that five-game stretch -- which includes three teams currently ranked in the AP top 25 -- on Saturday at home against No. 10 Ole Miss. The Tigers will host the Rebels at 6 p.m. in Jordan-Hare Stadium, with the game airing on ESPN.
Read more Auburn football: Jeremiah Wright won’t return this season after spring ACL surgery
Bryan Harsin declines to discuss vaccination status in light of university mandate
Statistically speaking: Where Auburn stands after the bye week
It will be Auburn’s fourth game against a ranked opponent this season and its second at home. With Saturday’s showdown against Ole Miss looming, Auburn coach Bryan Harsin met with the media Monday afternoon for his weekly press conference. He detailed how Auburn spent the bye week and what the team achieved with the week off from a grueling schedule, previewed the upcoming matchup with the Rebels and star quarterback Matt Corral, as well as provided updates on other key topics.
Here’s a look at everything Harsin had to say Monday:
BRYAN HARSIN
Opening statement…
“Alright, game week. It was good to have the bye week. I’ll talk about that here in just a minute. Just certainly looking forward to the opportunity to get back out and have a normal week and get prepared for Ole Miss. A really good football team, and we’ll get more into that.
“Just wanted to recap from the Arkansas game. We put these players out, but just players of the game: Bo Nix on offense, Zakoby McClain on defense. Our o-lineman of the game was Kilian Zierer, and proud of him and his opportunity to get in there and play. Did a very good job obviously, and it was good to see him go out there and just improve as the game went on and also have the opportunity to, you know, be the offensive lineman of the game. That’s continued through this week with his preparation. His play has gotten better. We’ll get Austin Troxell back, and so that’ll be good to have both those guys in that position. D-line, Colby Wooden continues to play at a high level for us and has done very well at the d-line position, and then special teams was Shedrick Jackson.
“That was a good road win. Good, tough team we played. The environment was great, and I was proud of our guys just for the focus, the effort, everything leading into that week coming off the Georgia game -- and certainly the way we played. So, that carried over into the bye week. We got some good work in just as far as practice goes. We got three good practices. Got a chance to get a few guys healthy, spent some time conditioning and going back through some things that we normally spend time on during spring ball and fall camp, so the fundamentals and the basics and also giving some of the younger players a chance to get out there and compete and see those guys a little bit more within the schemes that we run and not so much just the scout teams that they’ve been providing looks for, which was good.
“So, some of those young guys, right now you can see the development that’s going on in the weight room and some of the extra conditioning things that we’ve been able to do with these guys while they redshirt or play sparingly at this point. And so, it was a good week from that standpoint and a good week to see some of that development of those younger players. We did do some testing. Guys tested well in the weight room, and so, now that gives us a little bit more of a foundation for those young players where we can continue to build on that into the offseason. And as we know and can’t forget, you know, these guys that are redshirting right now still have those four games that they can play in. And we’ve had a few guys that have played in a few already, but we monitor that. I think that rule, since it’s been implemented, is a great rule allowing opportunities for guys to play while still using that year as a redshirt year at the same time helping your time if you need somebody for a game or you need somebody to finish out a game. It’s not going to cost them like it used to, burning a redshirt year.
“The other thing the bye week provided for the players was a chance to heal. So some of the guys have been playing — just a little bit of time to let those guys still get work in, but rest. Not get as many as reps as they have previously in our weeks of practice. So getting a few guys just feeling better and a chance to hopefully get some guys back through the bye week which was good and good timing for us.
“Allowed the coaches to get out and recruit. So, there was opportunities during this past week to get on the road, get a chance to see some of the high school coaches, watch a few games and get Auburn and the brand out there and doing some recruiting, which is very important for us and vital for our future and success. So, all those things worked out really well. The best part now is just getting back into this consistency again of the week. Back into the season, back into preparing ourselves for the game on Saturday evening at 6:00 against a good Ole Miss team.
“I got a chance to watch them against LSU and LSU looked strong early in the game scoring. They went down the field and scored on that drive and then you could see Ole Miss — offense was on fire, quarterback played well again, defense really came on and played physical, special teams was solid all the way throughout the game. They’re 6-1 for a reason. Their one loss coming to Alabama. You look at just some of the things they’re doing from an offensive standpoint: They’re scoring a bunch of points — they’re second in the SEC in scoring. Total yards, they’re first. They’re running the ball well. They’re passing the ball well. They’re aggressive in their third down and fourth down situations so they’re going to get close and close for them is probably a little bit more then what most people would do in a fourth down situation. But they’ve been very good at it. They’ve gone for it quite a bit so you’ve got to be ready for that. And they’ve been successful with it, so they’re executing. A big part of that is their style of offense and their quarterback and his play.
“They’re a tempo team and we’ve seen some tempo this season so you have to be ready for that on the defensive side. We’re going to have a lot of variety in there in the pass game that comes off the run and certainly be prepared for the quarterback run game as well.
“Matt Corral, leader of this team obviously on the offensive side. Frontrunner for the Heisman. Completing about 70% of his passes. 15 touchdowns, one int — he’s making good decisions. Like I said, he runs the ball hard, he’s a physical player at that position and he’s shown that throughout the entire season.
“Their wide receivers, (Dontario) Drummond, 36 catches, he’s got 17 yards per catch — very good. Very good player. Very consistent for them as a playmaker.
“Their two running backs, (Jerrion) Ealy and (Henry) Parrish, both those guys, they’re both playmakers. They got a high completion — they’re catching a lot of balls so those guys are making quite a big of things happen in the pass game. And they’ve got more weapons then just those guys there. Offensively I’ve just been impressed with everything they’ve done.
“Defensively, I think they’re third in the SEC in turnovers gained. They’re second in sacks. They’ve done some things on the defensive side with that front which is multiple with that three-down and the different variations they can bring with their safeties and linebackers. And they’ve played physical in the games that I’ve seen. A few guys that stand out: They’ve got five returning starters from 2020. Sam Williams, their d-end, very good player, 29 tackles, is playing very well this season. Chance Campbell is their leading tackler. This guy’s physical, he’s fast, plays hard. And it shows up when you pop in the tape, he stands out. And so does Reese, No. 3. Both those guys, they’re going to be in there on tackles. They’re going to play physical. And they’ve been that way through the entire year.
“They’ve shown a lot of consistency from that standpoint. So, they’re ranked for a reason. Both their sides of the ball are playing really well. Special teams are solid. They haven’t punted much. I think they’ve had like 20 punts they’ve attempted this season because they go for it so many times on fourth down. But all their specialists, very, very good. Those guys make plays. They play hard on special teams so you can tell they’re well coached. This is important to them. They’ve had some good momentum that they’ve created in games. They’ve played in some tough environments as well.
“Our guys certainly know from having a chance to watch these guys over the past 10 days or so going into this week, and knowing who we’re going to play. They definitely have our attention, and our guys are looking forward to having a great week of practice and then getting themselves ready to go play against a really good football team on Saturday night. We’re looking forward to that and excited to be back into a normal week and looking for some consistency from our team. Looking forward to seeing our guys go out there and have a great week of practice and show up ready to play on Saturday night.”
On what stands out about Ole Miss QB Matt Corral…
“I think this guy’s tough. I think he’s a tough player. People say football player. That stands out. He happens to play quarterback. This guy’s a football player. He throws the ball very well. He does a very good job on play action. He runs the ball hard, and he runs it physical at his position. He’s making good decisions. You can tell with his stats: 15 touchdowns, 1 INT. I think he’s also their leading rusher as well.
“He does a lot of things for what they’re trying to accomplish on the offensive side. I think he’s got a good feel for what they’re doing. So, their offensive coordinator, Jeff Lebby, coach Kiffin, those guys have done a very good job with him. And he plays hard every single game. I think good football players do that. They play hard and they go out there. I have no idea how he prepares himself or what that looks like during the week. But come game day you can see there’s consistency in his play, there’s a toughness in his play and there’s certainly decision-making and actual plays being made from that position because of him.
“Very impressed. He’s one of the best in the country. So, you’ve got to be prepared for that and know what you’re getting into.”
On approaching the bye week after a big road win…
“I don’t know if there’s a formula necessarily. I think it really is determined by your team and just their mentality. We won a really good game against Arkansas, and I think there was a lot of energy coming off that game. And certainly, you feel the momentum as we came back and kind of put that game to bed and moved on to the bye week and got prepared for that. It’s about the mentality of your players. Are we still trying to get better through the bye week? I don’t think we took the bye week for granted. I think we went out there, and guys practiced hard, from what I saw. I think there was positive things that we were getting done on the practice field fundamentally, technique-wise.
“Coaches went on the road Wednesday night, so it was really just Coach Schmedding, myself, Gas, analysts that were there on Thursday, so it was kind of more of a captains practice where we had to be—you’re counting on the leaders of your team to really step up and make sure that we’re not out there wasting our time. I don’t think we wasted any time. I think the guys conditioned well, so sometimes guys will want to just relax and back off and kind of take a whole week off. We’re just not that—one, that’s not our mentality, and two, I think our players — and certainly we know as a staff — we’re nowhere where we need to be in order for us to have a day where we can just kind of back off. We’re still learning, we’re still developing. We’re still spending a ton of time on just getting some of these basic fundamentals and even schemes and details still installed to the point where we can do them at a consistent, consistent rate.
“So, that to me, what I saw, I don’t think anybody really backed off from that standpoint. We did from a physical standpoint, but I think mentally and just what guys were trying to get done, we had a productive week. Now the real key is you’re into a regular week, that Tuesday practice that we’re about to have tomorrow, that needs to be high energy, fast tempo back into that groove that we had going into the Arkansas week. We have to have that. To me, that comes back to our consistency as a team, as a staff, and getting right back into the things we know have worked for us and improving on them.”
On Ole Miss’ defensive improvement, and whether Auburn is focusing more on the Rebels’ recent performances instead of early-season ones on defense…
“You’re 100 percent right; they are getting better. I think their whole team is getting better, watching now. Now going and studying our opponent and really looking at the game’s they’ve played, I’ve seen them on television a few times, but now as you study them, they are getting better. They’re improving. They have momentum. I thought the defense played really physical against LSU. LSU ran the ball early, looked physical, did some things in that first drive and then the defense turned it on. They were playing physical in that game.
“So, they play hard. At the end of the day, their schemes—it’s a little bit different, unique to what they do, but their guys play hard and they play physical. The guys I mentioned—(Otis) Reese, (Chance) Campbell, (Sam) Williams, other guys on their team—those guys are around the football and you can tell that there’s a—they’re working on those things. It’s not just something that shows up; they’re working on it. They practice every week too. I’m sure their coaches are giving them the coaching points they need to improve every single week, and that’s what you see. So, we know this is a good football team. Period. Ole Miss is very good, and we’re going to have to practice and we’re going to have to prepare ourselves. Like I said, you know what you’re getting into, and carry over some of the things we did really well and be consistent so that we can go and improve and be a better football team on Saturday.”
On injured defensive tackle Jeremiah Wright and whether he will return this season from a torn ACL…
“I wish he could. I’m glad you asked about him. He’s running now. He had shoulder pads on the other day, so he’s out there doing things. Will he be ready to play this year? No, he’s not going to be ready to play this year. And even that injury, you’re coming off an ACL. You don’t want to reinjure an ACL; you want to make sure that guys are completely healthy, fully at that full strength, full capacity where they can make all the moves and things they have to do to play at their level. But it’s good to see him out there. He’s running with the guys he’s got pads on. He’s got help. He’s got a helmet on at times, so it’s just good to have him out there.
“He’s got a vibe about him that you want on this team. He’s got, I think, leadership qualities that you want on this team. He is very aware of what’s going on with this football team, so the more he’s around, the better that we are. I wish he could play. We could use him. That guy would be a difference maker for us without a question.
“And then right now, no, nobody else has — there’s no season-ending injuries. The guys that have been out a little bit, expect those guys to be back. This bye week helped, that did help with our recovery. It did help with some of our guys that have played a lot of snaps. We played a lot of snaps in the Arkansas game. So from that standpoint, for the defense in particular, the bye week came at a really good time. And that allowed us to get some other guys healthy and back out there on the field, and we’ll just see how this week goes. Some of those guys that haven’t played as much, how can they contribute this week and get back in the mix?”
On his vaccination status in light of Auburn’s university mandate requiring all employees to provide proof of vaccination by Dec. 8…
“Yeah, you go back to not just a media days, but also in August, I had a chance to talk to you guys about that as well. So I’m aware of the new policy. I appreciate you have to ask the question and understand it, but it doesn’t change ... I mean, the executive order, all those things, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m not going to discuss any individual’s decision or status on the vaccine or anyone else’s including my own, like I said before.
“So, from the beginning, I think I’ve made it clear that that wasn’t something that I was going to talk about or discuss. I wasn’t going to go down that road and don’t feel like right now that’s any different. We’re focused on Ole Miss. We’re focused on the things we have to do to get prepared for this week. There’s a lot of other things right now that we have to make sure we’re ready for on this football team. That’s what I’ve got to stay focused on with our players and our staff and the people in this program. So we’ve had those conversations, but that doesn’t change what I said before.”
On offensive tackle Kilian Zierer…
“He’s certainly put himself in a position to compete, there’s no doubt about it. One of the hardest things -- somebody gets injured, and they’ve been out there fighting for you, in any sport, and someone comes in and plays really well. Well, you know what, there’s a positive for that, because the player that came in was ready for his opportunity. And you’re always telling guys, ‘Be ready. When your opportunity comes, you need to take advantage of it.’ And Kilian did exactly that. Troxell is feeling better, so those guys get a chance to compete. So the thing about Trox, that dude is tough. He is blue collar; he’s tough; he’s everything we talk about in this program. He lives it, and he’s a guy that, in my opinion, exudes exactly that mentality that we want to have. So those guys will get a chance to compete.
“As far as the O-line goes, early on, those guys took a ton of criticism from the previous season. They were a big question mark. There’s still a lot to improve on -- no different than the D-line, the DBs, the quarterbacks -- everybody’s got things they’ve got to get better at. The O-line is no different. But those guys have done a good job of improving each week, in my opinion. I think they’ve gotten better. I think they take pride in their development; I think they take pride in trying to be a physical unit; I think they take pride in making sure they understand what we’re trying to accomplish in the run game and pass game from their standpoint. They’ve gotten better as the season’s gone on. I like the mentality; I know we can get better. I think we can have a little bit more competition in that room. We’ll see how that goes over the course of this week.”
On Auburn’s recent struggles with the run game…
“Absolutely. Yeah, we’re always working on the run game, with many other things, as well. Yes, we had a chance to work through some of those things. What the bye week gives you an opportunity to do is go back and look -- alright, what was good, what was bad and why? And let’s go work against some of those looks. As much as you’re trying to prepare for your opponent each week and win that game -- and we’re still teaching the game of football to our guys -- we’re going to see some of that. We could say, what front, what looks are we going to get?
“That may change during the game; they could do whatever the hell they want to do on defense. They can give you whatever look they want. So they’ve got to teach guys how to handle that and still be able to run the ball. It’s not like you call a play and line up a certain defense. You can’t just decide you’re not going to run the ball; you have to know how to do it. So, we’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to do that -- kind of teach the guys the different looks we had seen. And then, just preparing that way. Absolutely, we’re trying to get better in the run game.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
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