The Auburn Tigers pulled off their third straight win this past weekend over the South Alabama Jaguars in the first matchup ever between the two teams. The Tigers took the victory 31-15, but the Jaguars were able to find an uncomfortable level of success on offense at times.
With so many young guys playing on the defense, it's hardly a surprise that there were some mistakes made. The Tigers rotated 14 freshmen in and out of the lineup throughout the game, and head coach Hugh Freeze emphasized the importance of the younger players getting real, in-game experience despite the fact that it won't always look perfect.
Heading into next week's game, the first conference matchup of the year on the road in Oklahoma, Freeze wants his secondary to avoid getting down on themselves for mistakes made and instead focus on the next play.
"It’s like I told them this morning in the team meeting, we have to quit feeling like we have to be perfect, and when you’re not perfect having a long face," Freeze said. "That’s not going to get it. There’s really good football teams and really good coaches that are going to have a good plan, and somebody is going to make plays on you. It’s about playing the next play and the next possession and getting the things that we did not do properly corrected, and being able to do that within the course of the game. You can’t do that if you’re still worried about, ‘Well, I didn’t get this done and I’m down on myself.’ Some of the young guys kind of look that way at times to me.
"The whole message was we held a team to 15 points and we didn’t play our best. We have a lot of things we can improve on... You can’t worry about that last possession. You have to get ready to play the next one. I think that’s the growing that needs to happen right now so that DJ (Durkin) and his staff can get things corrected for the next drive without you being clouded by, ‘Well, I just messed that up.’ Let’s get it fixed and don’t mess it up again, but you have to let that go and play the next play.”
Auburn and Oklahoma are set for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff from Norman this Saturday.