Quotes of note following Auburn football's week two loss to Cal
The Auburn football program created a significant amount of momentum last weekend after beating Alabama A&M by 70 points in the season opener. No one expected the Tigers to be perfect moving forward, but their performance seemed to indicate that dramatic improvements had been made from last season.
Now, after a week two loss to the Cal Golden Bears in Jordan-Hare Stadium, it almost seems like the Tigers have dropped right back to square one, picking up from the woes and struggles of last season. After being praised all offseason long, quarterback Payton Thorne did not look capable of running an offense, regardless of whether or not there are other position groups to blame.
It was not a loss that was expected from the fan base, and it was a massive hit to the momentum the team was building in a positive direction. Below are quotes of note from Auburn football players and coaches on this week's loss.
Hugh Freeze on Keldric Faulk and the defensive line, per AL.com:
“Keldric is one of the best leaders we have. He plays his heart out. He’s one of the guys you can count on when things get tough to hang in there and look for the right way out of it. He’s a really good leader and really good young kid and obviously a very good player. All of those younger kid we’re depending on for our future are watching him. He’s a good one to watch.”
Safety Jerrin Thompson on QB Payton Thorne, per Auburn Undercover:
"Talked to him just a while ago after he got out of the shower. I told him to keep his head up because we're going to need him. At the end of day, he didn't have the game he wanted, but the way he responds is going to say everything about Payton (and who he is as a leader)."
Defensive end Keldric Faulk on moving forward from the loss, per Auburn Rivals:
"We’ve got to learn how to deal with success and we’ve got to learn how to deal with failure. A loss is something you can learn from. If you don’t learn from it, it’s pointless,” said Faulk. “If we actually learn from the loss, we learn from the mistakes, we learn how to slant right, we learn where to put our hands, we learn how to rush on the edge when the quarterback drops and we think it’s a run play.
“We’ve gotta get better on that. We’ve gotta learn from that. Our young guys are tremendously talented. They’ve got so much talent to do what they do. They just need to watch the film and come back ready to work.”
QB Payton Thorne on his interceptions, per Auburn Undercover:
"Yeah, you know there are some different situations that happened throughout the game. Obviously, no matter how a turnover happens or occurs, you don't want those, so we've got to do a better job of protecting the ball, and that starts with me. I touch the ball every play, so we've got to do that and like you said, head back to the drawing board a little bit. You know, we aren't going to abandon our offense, but we just have to be sharper."
The Auburn Tigers return to action next week in Jordan-Hare Stadium against New Mexico.