Opening remarks…
“Very, very happy to be 3-0 headed into our SEC opener. I thought our kids did what they needed to do to win the football game Saturday. There were a lot of things we did well. Some things we can certainly be better at. Offensively, zero turnovers and zero penalties, that’s a good way to start. Scoring on five of your first six possessions is really nice to get off to a faster start. Special teams had some good things, kickoffs and kickoff coverage were really good. Field goal team was solid. Good to see Alex (McPherson) getting more strength, and I think that’s getting better each week to help us with the field goal opportunities we may have. Defensively, three yards per rush or so. That’s solid, but definitely could clean up a lot of things. Our missed assignments went back up, which we’re not happy with. We’ve got to get that, certainly, cleaned up before Saturday. Great home crowd, great homecoming. Excited to be 3-0 headed into our SEC opener.”
On facing Oklahoma’s defense…
“They’ve only given up one touchdown this year. They’re very stingy, very physical. Obviously last year we had good experience against them. (Brent Venables) does a great job, and he’s got great players. When I watch the tape, I’m looking, to me, at a team that should be in the playoff discussions. They’re that talented and that good. It looks like, watching around, I think our league is very, very deep, and I think we’re playing one of the better teams in it this Saturday. That’s probably going to be the case for the next few Saturdays. That’s why you come to Auburn. That’s why you coach, that’s why you play here. That defense is one of the more talented ones I’ve seen.”
On assessing Jackson Arnold’s play through three games…
“He’s been very solid. The first game obviously was what it was, and he did what he needed to do for our team. Second game, he completed 80% of his passes or so, that’s pretty good. He’s taking care of the ball. Last week, his passing stats weren’t great, but some of that was some drops, too, that we had. I thought his decision-making was really good. And number one, again, it starts with how do you judge a quarterback, and that is wins and losses and the turnover battle. I think he’s done those extremely well, and he leads our team well. He’s got this competitive spirit about him, and it’s going to be needed in the upcoming games for sure. I think he is in a good spot. Obviously we haven’t been tested like we're getting ready to be tested, so we’ll see how he performs against some of the best teams in the nation the next few weeks, starting Saturday.”
On injury updates heading into this week…
“I expect them to make good progress. If I had to say today, I would think the biggest concern would be Amaris (Williams). Damari (Alston) obviously, again, you haven’t let him go live yet, but I would be shocked if he doesn’t give it a go. I think everybody else will try. I think that’s the biggest concern I had today would be Amaris.”
On throwing the ball deep…
“I’d like to throw it deep more. I think those deep passes that are completed are really good. The ones that are incomplete are not so good. I think we’ve got the threats to throw it deep, and hopefully we can be a little more aggressive and more consistent in throwing it down the field.”
On Keyron Crawford…
“I think his offseason, obviously Vontrell (King- Williams) and Roc (Bellantoni) have done a good job coaching him on techniques and things, but I think the biggest credit probably goes to the time he spent with our strength staff. Gaining more flexibility, more strength, more size, and I think that has translated into him playing better football. "
On the freshmen who are pushing for more playing time…
“I would say Newboy (AnQuon Fegans) and (Eric) Winters are pushing. I don’t know if pushing is the right word or proving that they deserve some time in our rotation back there. The linebackers are playing so it’s not like they’re having to push. Those young guys are playing. X (Xavier Atkins), (Bryce) Deas, (Elijah) Melendez, they’re playing. We’re young in the middle of that defense, and it’s really going to be tested in the next few weeks. It’ll be a good test for us to see where we are with those young guys. (Blake) Woodby is another one pushing to get some time at nickel. Playing a lot of kids. I saw a stat somewhere where we played like 20 freshmen or redshirt freshmen in the first three games. That’s good and bad. I think speaks well for the recruiting we’ve done. Also, they need some time to development. I’m always trying to get them some leeway for people to be patient with them, for us to be patient with them as they develop because they’re going to be really good players.”
On Jackson Arnold returning to Oklahoma…
“The good thing is that I’ve had personal experience with that. I’ve had to go back in a place that I enjoyed coaching. Won some games. Had to go back in there and take another team in and play. That whole week, it was a challenge for me not to think about some of that. I know the same will be true for Jackson (Arnold). He’s very mature and he doesn’t give any credit to any noise or talk. He’s a pro. We all understand people might cheer for him, boo him, whatever it is. I think he’s mentally strong and is more about preparing. My advice to him is to just keep the focus on our team. That was my advice to myself. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about our team preparing to go in to play. I don’t know what they’re ranked now, but I think they’re a top 10 team. So that’s where the focus needs to be and all the rest will subside at some point. It will be about what do on the field. So that’s my advice to him. Same thing I told myself going back into Ole Miss when I was at Liberty.”
On Eric Singleton Jr.’s performance so far this year…
“A very solid contributor. He is what we knew he was. He's good in the pass and good in the run game. A very high football IQ, runs great routes, and so we're thrilled we have him. I think he's produced very nicely, and I'm going to need him to play big in these next few games.”
On bouncing back after giving up an explosive play…
“We went through all of those yesterday. Some of it is technique that we have to coach better. Some of it is miscommunication by some of the young kids. Again, 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. 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. The one thing you have to know heading in, if you watch all of these games, there were games that were 40-41 and I’m sure they didn’t feel like they played great at times, but yet you have to make a play at some point to win the game. 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.”
On if he will dial back rotating players on defense heading into SEC play…
“I don’t think so. I haven’t talked to DJ (Durkin) specifically about that, but we’ve been trying to get ready for this moment by playing those young kids because you know you’re going to have to have that depth in these games. Somebody inevitably will go down, and somebody has to step up and do that. For us, it’s going to be some young kids that are in those roles. Offensively, you’ve seen kind of who we’re going to play, and defensively I would expect to see pretty much the same.”
On offensive execution in key situations (third down, red zone, etc.)…
“That was vital to our offseason and our whole focus was being good in the critical downs and red zone, and thus far we have been. Again, we haven’t faced a defense like we’re getting ready to face, and they’re going to make a lot of teams not do so well in some of those situations. We’ve got to find a way to be in manageable downs for sure, or it’s not going to be a fun night if you’re trying to do that against that defense. So to this point, we have improved, but now the tests get harder.”
On improvement in pass protection vs. South Alabama…
“I thought the pocket was clean most of the night and (Jackson Arnold) had plenty of time to go through his progressions. And I thought we strained better, and we actually worked hard on that last week in practice – making the play go longer than normal and making the strain an extra second. We need to strain to find a way to protect. This team has harassed the quarterbacks extremely well in their first three games and kept tremendous pass rushers off the edge. Big, physical guys in the middle are very good at disguising their pressures. So this, again, will be a bigger test of what we’ve had, but we certainly improved from week two to week three.”
On Oklahoma’s offense with QB John Mateer…
“He (John Mateer) is very talented. Runner, thrower, competitor, you can tell that team follows him, and he is their go-to guy in critical downs for whatever they need, and he has the ability to do it, and he’s got good skill around him. Those receivers and the tight end are very talented, with a really good O-line and solid running backs. Again, if you watch the tape, you think this team is one of the special ones and he’s the large reason.”
On the defensive end spot if Amaris Williams is unable to play Saturday…
“We have been rotating guys. Probably Jared Smith would be the first one to pop off my head as a guy. You know we are going to play Chris (Murray) and we are going to play Keyron (Crawford), and we are going to play Keldric (Faulk), and probably Jared would be the next guy. We can move Zykeivous (Walker) out, we need to, but probably Jared Smith."
On gaining intel on Oklahoma from Jackson Arnold…
“We haven’t really talked about that. We talked about the stadium atmosphere and things of that nature because I’ve never been there. And I assume that it’s going to be like an SEC stadium, and he confirmed that, and how tight the benches are, he says. I don’t know a lot about that, but apparently, it’s really, really tight. But as far as schematics, we’re going with what our breakdowns say and what we see on tape from this year and get a game plan that we hope gives him a chance to have success. But we really haven’t talked about anything else other than that.”
On Alex McPherson continuing to improve…
“We feel that way. I want it to keep trending that way. It appears that the latest treatment he's getting is definitely helping him eat better with nutrition and able to eat more, which is gaining him more strength. That's what we have felt these last three weeks, and I have no reason it's not going to continue. Obviously when you have a condition, you're always a little apprehensive to say that he's going to get better every single week, but we sure hope that's the case."