Bryan Harsin’s Auburn debut was an impressive one.
Auburn devoured Akron, 60-10, Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Harsin’s first game as head coach on the Plains, as the Tigers put on a show for a near-capacity crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
After the game, Harsin met with the media via Zoom to discuss his team’s performance and his first win with the program. Here’s a look at everything he had to say Saturday night:
BRYAN HARSIN, Auburn coach
Opening statement…
“First of all, I told the team and the staff congratulations on the win. Proud of those guys. It was awesome to be out there and in front of this crowd. They had great energy. That’s something that we can’t simulate in practice, that environment, and it was awesome tonight. It was rocking all the way through the game. I appreciate the students; they stayed the entire time, great energy through the game. At the end of the game, I got a chance to go over there and recognize them, so it was awesome. The environment, the fans, just being out there in the stadium, I thought for our guys was exciting and for everybody on that sideline. We enjoyed that, we appreciate it, and it certainly helped aid in the win.
“I thought our guys came out ready to play, did a lot of work, a lot of focus on what they had to do the last nine months to prepare, and today was an example of what we’re capable of doing when we go out there and play good football. That’s been the message for a while, just play good ball, take care of it, do things in situational football, hard things where we execute. We did that in the red zone, we did that on third downs. Overall, we’ll go back and watch the tape, but I thought from the game tonight, I thought we played well and played consistent and took advantage of the situations we were in, and that showed up.
“Credit to Akron. I know they’ve been preparing and getting themselves ready to go as well. It was just good to be out there and see our guys play and cut it loose, and we did get an opportunity to get a lot of guys in, which is going to help us as we go back and study the film and look at some of the things we know we have to get better at. We have 24 hours to celebrate this win. We’ll come back tomorrow, get everybody back, get everybody focused, and we’ll move on to our next opponent. It was just—it was awesome. It was awesome for this staff, this team to go out there and get a W, be 1-0, and these guys could certainly feel that in the locker room. So, proud of our team, proud of our coaches and excited about the opportunity to be here and have a chance to go out there and be in that environment certainly was an experience. So, with that, questions.”
On playing a clean game, with no turnovers and only three penalties…
“Yeah, as far as the turnovers go, yes. We always want to be plus-one in that category, so if we give up two, we got to get three. I thought the offense, we ran the ball well. You have the stats, you can all look at it in a little more detail. I thought we ran the ball well, which allowed us to be able to throw it, get some one-on-one matchups. The O-line protected and gave our quarterback time, and I thought Bo made good decisions. I thought when T.J. got in there, he made some good decisions, good throws. But if you take care of the football on offense and special teams, and you get the chance to get it and create turnovers, get those takeaways on the defensive side, I think that’s going to be a key ingredient to our success, really, every game. I’m proud of our team that we did that because we spend a lot of time on it, we emphasize it, and it showed up tonight in the game.”
On Bo Nix’s performance…
“I thought he did a good job. You saw plays that he executed; everybody saw that. What I got to see was his presence, leadership in the huddle, his poise on the 2-minute drive to get us into field-goal range and get points at the end of the half. Just some of the other things, too, that not everybody would know. We called some shot plays, and the look might not have been, and he made the right decision to not have that play run. So, he managed the game well. I thought he played well, he ran when he needed to; he’s obviously very effective when he does that. Overall, at that position, the decision-making, he was accurate with his throws, he did a good job on the sideline of getting adjustments with Coach Bobo and getting that explained with the wide receivers, the tailbacks, the tight ends amongst the players when he needed to. Then he showed it on the field, the sideline, getting them on the field and going out there to execute. We didn’t have any penalties coming from the sideline after a kickoff return; we didn’t have delay of games, so that really comes back to the QB and just managing, which is a big part of his position.
“I thought he had fun. He was good, he had a smile on his face, he had good energy out there, he was executing well. So, all the work that he’s been putting in—he’s a dedicated player—he got a chance to show some of that tonight. Now we can build from that going to the next game and hopefully continue with that decision-making and that type of execution. He knows what kind of work it takes to do that. I’m proud of him. It was good to just watch him operate tonight, to see him handle all the things thrown at him. I thought Coach Bobo and the offensive staff did a good job.”
On T.D. Moultry’s big night…
“Well, I thought the defense overall, I thought those guys were getting to the ball. We were flying around. We tackled well. I thought we tackled well. I thought we were relentless in our pursuit to get to the ball. And TD, he’s a guy who, just talking about that consistency, he does that in practice. He does that in the weight room. He’s got that motor that I think we saw that tonight, and I think he was able to go out there and make plays. He’s into it. Even when we took him out, he’s out there cheering on his teammates. He’s right there in the front at the end of the game. He loves football.
“He shows up every day. He’s obviously talented, and I think his motor, his effort, is something that separates him and why he had the kind of game he did tonight. I know he’ll continue that too because that’s just who he is. So I’m happy fpor him. I’m proud of him. He’s the guy and I’ve said this before,I really like his attitude. I like his entire approach, so I’m glad he played well tonight. Come back to work tomorrow and be ready to go next week.”
On the wide receivers as a group…
“I specifically talked about consistency with this group, and that was from Day 1. And I thought they were tonight. They lined up in the right alignments. We had the right splits. We didn’t have anybody that was covering someone up, so we didn’t have a lot of those ticky tack things that just show up in games early. So I thought they did the little things. They communicated. They knew where to go, they got the signal from the sideline. And then they went out there and executed as far as their routes, the depths, they went up and snatched it.
“You saw Kobe Hudson go up on the touchdown, he kind of went up and had to go up and get it. He snatched the ball out of the air. That’s something that Coach Williams hits on all the time with those guys, so that was good to see. We were pretty consistent throughout the game at that position. We were rotating in quite a few guys, changing personnel. We’re moving guys around, and for the most part guys were lined up. We had very few — that I can remember — alignment issues. That’s the stuff we’ve got to continue to do, putting ourselves in position to make the plays we did. And we did tonight. There’s a foundation there we can build on, and we can look toward improving that next week.”
On Shedrick Jackson and Jarquez Hunter…
“Shed was injured. And so, he was limited was limited in spring, and had a chance to come back, had class this summer. Missed a few opportunities to play in practices, but we got that all sorted out. But I’ve always, I’ve always been impressed with Shedrick. I think he’s a leader. He has a level of maturity that makes him successful on and off the field and we get to see that every single day. And I think he’ll continue. He’s one of those guys who will come to work every day and give you his very best. So that consistency with him is really important.
“Jarquez — let me go back to Tank. I thought Tank ran hard tonight. I thought Shaun ran hard tonight. He took care of the football. It was good to see that. The o-line gave them opportunities. Jarquez was a guy that we felt like would get an opportunity, regardless, in this first game to go out there and play. He’s earned that through practice. He’s another guy, a new guy. He went out there, I thought, on the first run he ran it well. I know he got 30-something yards on it. He did a good job of seeing it, bouncing it, and you could see that he’s got speed. So the vision’s there and the speed is there and the opportunity to make big plays. Even at the end there, we wanted to finish getting those guys a few more reps, have chance to finish in the end zone. For a young player that mindset. especially at the position, is crucial for us to keep growing and developing at that area of the running back position.” On the offensive line’s performance… “I thought those guys played well. I’m looking forward to watching the tape. Coach Friend did a good job of rotating guys in. So last night in our walkthroughs and watching film, you could tell the O-line that they were locked in. This morning we had another walkthrough and kind of going through some of our openers and the plays we were going to run early. And then the lineman pregame meal is done, and we do a little clap session. It’s a little short yardage and goal line, and they were locked in. You could just feel those guys wanting to go out there and have a really good performance. It was important to them to play well today, and I thought they did that. And we got a chance to get some other guys in the rotation.
“You know the O-line, that’s been an area that we’ve had a lot of questions on and those guys know that. They wanted to go play well. They wanted to give the opportunity to the running back to hit the hole and the quarterback and opportunity to get back there and go through his progression. And they’ve been doing that in practice. This wasn’t just something that happened tonight. They’ve been working on that really hard and it showed up. So I’m proud of our O-line. We’ll go back and study the film. We’ve got plenty to work on but it was a good start for those guys. They’ve been working very hard so it was nice to see that hard work not go unnoticed tonight and to see those guys really have an opportunity to help those other players shine.”
On the vertical passing game…
“I think when you can run the ball, you can take shots. And the one to Kobe, it was a four-vertical play and Bo just saw it. I think he was going through his progressions and was getting ready to go outside and saw Kobe pop because the safety moved. It was great. I was great vision to see that. Just the reaction too. Bo can set his feet and he can rip it. If you’re not able to do that, you’re probably not going to make that throw. But he saw it, set his feet, ripped it. It was a great catch. The other opportunities down the field, those were created by the run game. They’re created by having great protection and then the wide receivers doing a good job of getting themselves in position off of safeties or corners, whoever they’re running it off of, to be able to beat those 1-on-1 matchups and get themselves open.
“So, if we can run the ball, we can get big chunks, we can take shots down the field. We can be efficient on third downs and execute and extend drives. That’s one of the things we want to do. We’d like to get some explosive plays. I think any offense in the country would say that. We were able to do it tonight and it was just good execution overall by all 11 guys to get that done. But it starts up front. It starts with the opportunity to run the ball. If we can do those things, some of the other things will happen.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
