From the Podium: QB controversy? Bryan Harsin recaps Auburn's season-opening win
AUBURN– After a long offseason, Bryan Harsin was back behind the podium on Saturday night after an Auburn win.
This was the first time that Harsin has had the chance to talk about a win since October 30th of last year after the win against Ole Miss.
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Harsin’s opening statements
As soon as Harsin hit the podium, he expressed his gratitude for the fans that came to the game and talked about the need for improvement.
“Just our fans, I want to thank them for coming out,” Harsin said. “The start of the game was great and then we had a lightning delay that obviously changed the size of the crowd…”
“We’ve got plenty of things to work on. It wasn’t perfect and there is a lot of stuff we have to get better at. That’s the beauty of the first game of the season is you get a chance to know your team a whole lot better after 4 hours of playing. Now, what we’ll do, we’ll assess tomorrow and we will get back to work.”
“Really in the first three weeks, you should be improving and getting better. You probably settle into who you are in week four, most teams do. But that just comes back to just the mentality and the willingness to go out there and put in the work after all of that time spent in camp and preparing.. I think these guys are energized about the win, they’re excited about the potential in this team and they’re also realistic that we have to keep improving in order to achieve the goals that we want to achieve.”
Let’s talk quarterbacks
“Look, T.J. is our starter, he came into the game as our starter and Robby got a chance to play and did well. T.J. had a couple of turnovers, not ideal, not what you want, but we’re not making any decisions right now. We’re going to go back and we’re going to see what was it that caused the turnovers, how did guys really play. There’s a lot of other things too, just stuff that you guys don’t see, it’s not just throwing the ball, it’s how he’s operating as well. There’s plenty to learn, there’s nobody on this football team that’s a finished product.
“It’s never going to be that way in the first week in my opinion. I’ve never coached a team where you’re like ‘we’ve got it.’ You’ve got to give them time to develop. You’ve got to think when you get out there too that there’s factors that we just had a chance to play in, with our fans being out there, the whole vibe, and all of those things like that. I mean there’s just a lot of stuff that goes into the game.
“I think both guys were solid. I want to go back and watch it, we saw there were a couple of turnovers in there and we want to take those back, every quarterback does. I’ll go back and assess the film, like why did it happen? I thought we practiced really well leading up to it. I thought Mercer did really well on the defensive side in the backend, but other than the two turnovers, I thought we operated. I don’t think we had a delay of game. We didn’t have any stupid penalties like that, so that is one of the areas that I’m always looking at. Are we operating the way that we need to? We didn’t execute as well as we could and then we had some big plays and some big throws, so it’s just a balance.
“Between the two, I mean Robby’s going to play and T.J. is in there as well. Both of those guys were a part of the game plan, so it wasn’t a surprise for any of us that we were going to have Robby in there playing and now we’ll go back and we’ll assess tomorrow and where we’re at, what we do moving forward and how both of those guys can improve… let’s really look at, all right, where did we go wrong and where did they make a play, because sometimes defense will do that to, and then assess what we have to do moving forward to not let those things happen and be more effective at the quarterback position, especially at the pass game.”
About Robby: “You can see that he can fly now. He did a good job, he got around the corner there and I thought he could take that one. We were kind of joking on the sidelines, like ‘you gotta take that all the way and stay in bounds.’ But it gives us another dimension. He threw the ball well tonight as well, so it’s not just one thing, but he does have that ability to get out in space and he can go and we say that in training camp, we saw that a little in the spring. So, he was going to be in the mix. He did a really good job executing his assignment tonight of what he needed to do and I’m proud of him for coming in there and being ready when we needed him to and making plays when he did.”
Auburn’s run-first mentality with Tank and ‘Ja’
“We did want to run the football, we said that coming into the game… we did run the ball well and effectively. Jarquez had a big night. Tank, that was a great start after the lightning delay- both of those guys. You saw Damari Alston, he’s getting in there and he’s a guy that’s going to keep getting in there from what I’ve seen -but yeah, we want to run the football- Then you’ve got Robby, and Robby came in and did some things as well. If we can run the ball like that and be effective and spread it out a little bit and then hit some shots like some of those things we did tonight, that seems pretty effective. Overall, it starts with running the ball and we wanted to try to do that tonight. I thought we did a pretty good job.
“Both of those guys, having them in there, having the chance to utilize both guys, to have Damari in there, to get Shawn Jackson eventually. Shawn had a little bit of an ankle, he was able to play a little bit of special teams, but didn’t get as much running back reps. When he gets himself healthy- I think he’s feeling really, really good- when we can get him in the mix. You’re going to have those guys all where we can utilize them and they’re going to help each other out.”
Harsin’s high expectations for Auburn’s defense
“I really like our defense, but I don’t think they played lights out tonight. I think we’re capable of more and I also thought Mercer did a good job. It has nothing to do with the delay, I mean you’ve got to play. I’m not going to make excuses for our guys and they wouldn’t want that either. I think they can play better. I thought we tackled well. I thought we did some good things in the run game. Our coverage wasn’t as good as it needed to be with some scramble situations and all of that, so we’ve got to work on it. That’s something we’ve got to get better at and I think those guys would think the same thing that I’m saying. We’ve got to better ourselves in that area and we will.
“That’s the nice thing about having film. We can go back and look at it and go ‘this is what we have to work on, these things specifically.’ We’ll do that next week in practice so we’re better at it. But, overall, I think as a team we need to finish better. We did start the second half fast, that was a big challenge for us even from last season. but coming out and winning the third quarter and the fourth quarter and just being the team that can finish. You’ve got to do that to win the kind of games that we’re going to play each week. You’ve got to be able to win the third and fourth quarter. Simple as that. That’s not anything new, they’ve heard me say that all the way back from last year and into this season, so that’s no different and our guys know that.”
Cam Riley is a beast?
“I think he’s playing more than he’s ever played, so he’s capable of it… He definitely hsa the ability to make those kinds of plays, which he did tonight. I thought he tackled well. He’s long, he’s moving better. He’s just physically developed himself into a better player and I think Coach Robinson has done a really good job with him and position him, just to be patient when he needs to be, in the right position and trust his ability. Guys are going to try to move on him and he’s got range. I saw that tonight, too, the quarterback tried to wiggle on him a little bit and he stayed put and just watched him. When the guy was done moving, he went and tackled him. That’s part of his game. I think he can be a really good player for us and he and Owen right there in the middle are pretty good.”
