Auburn football: Jaylin Simpson’s advice for moving on from stunning loss

Needless to say, it was not a good weekend for the Auburn football program. The Tigers were expected to get a warmup for next week’s Iron Bowl rivalry game and instead got served up a massive L on a silver platter.

From the very beginning of the game, the New Mexico State Aggies dominated the Tigers, and the team that steamrolled Arkansas the week before was nowhere to be found. For head coach Hugh Freeze, there was ‘nothing positive’ about the game, and he attributes it to lack of effort and failure to execute.

However, the season doesn’t end here. After a historic loss to a team that has never beaten an SEC program, the Tigers have to turn it around and face Alabama next weekend. But how does the team get ready to face their biggest rival after such a brutal loss? For veteran cornerback Jaylin Simpson, it’s all about the 24-hour rule, per The Montgomery Advertiser:

"“My message to them guys is we’ve got to finish strong. It doesn’t matter what happened (against New Mexico State). It doesn’t matter what happened in Arkansas. It doesn’t matter what happened in LSU, whatever. Alabama is the next opponent, and that’s who we play and that’s our only focus right now.”“We need to have the 24-hour rule,” Simpson said. “Get the corrections we need to get and just completely throw this one in the trash and just focus on the biggest game of the season. It’s the Iron Bowl, it should not take a lot of motivation. It’s here at home, so I feel like if you don’t understand what type of game this is you need to figure it out real quick.”"

This Auburn football team has had their share of ups and downs this season, from a fighting win over Cal to disasters like the Texas A&M and LSU games to somehow only losing to Georgia by a touchdown and then throttling Arkansas on the road.

There isa lot for the Tigers to be proud of this season, especially considering it is the first year of a program-rebuild under Hugh Freeze, but the results of the Iron Bowl will have a big influence on how this season is remembered once it ends.

The Tigers looked terrible against New Mexico State, but anything can happen in an Iron Bowl played at Jordan-Hare Stadium.