Even though defense came through at the end, giving up 531 yards never bodes well.
Dee Ford wears a team-issued orange and navy bracelet that says “HTW,” for “hold the wheel.”
He won’t divulge exactly what it means. Industry secret.
But the Auburn junior defensive end gave a close approximation of its significance Sunday night.
“Hold the wheel. You never give up,” Ford said. “What we can learn from this game is trust in our coaches and players to just execute and play. Don’t listen to outside distractions.
“Though, of course, the whole world said we couldn’t do it.”
Auburn’s defense gave up 531 yards to Mississippi State on Saturday but stopped the Bulldogs inches short of the 532nd, the one that would have given the visitors a chance to tie or win the game.
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Barrett Trotter didn’t sleep too well last Friday night.
His stomach wasn’t entirely settled Saturday morning.
But by the time the junior quarterback made his way through Tiger Walk into the locker room and emerged from the tunnel for his first collegiate start, he was fine.
“It was just football from then on out. It was fine,” Trotter said. “I really wasn’t that nervous once I got the pads on.”
Once he got the pads on, Trotter completed 5-of-5 passes in the first half for 88 yards and a 56-yard scoring strike to Emory Blake.
When Auburn got behind 38-28, he completed 6-of-8 passes for 91 yards and a touchdown pass to Philip Lutzenkirchen on the Tigers’ final two drives, the ones that sealed their comeback win.
Overall, Trotter completed 17-of-23 passes for 261 yards and three scores, the sixth-highest single-game yardage total for an Auburn quarterback under offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.
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After Auburn’s come from behind victory on Saturday. One in which they were down 10 points with two minutes left and needed an onside kick to win. The Associated Press decided it wasn’t convincing enough for the reigning National Champion Tigers, to stay ranked, even though the won.
This is patently absurd.
1 Oklahoma (32) 1-0 1448
2 LSU (17) 1-0 1415
3 Alabama (9) 1-0 1409
4 Boise State (2) 1-0 1310
5 Florida State 1-0 1196
6 Stanford 1-0 1154
7 Texas A&M 1-0 1033
8 Wisconsin 1-0 1031
9 Oklahoma State 1-0 981
10 Nebraska 1-0 947
11 Virginia Tech 1-0 906
12 South Carolina 1-0 843
13 Oregon 0-1 828
14 Arkansas 1-0 752
15 Ohio State 1-0 606
16 Mississippi State 1-0 594
17 Michigan State 1-0 530
18 Florida 1-0 382
19 West Virginia 1-0 357
20 Baylor 1-0 284
21 Missouri 1-0 242
22 South Florida 1-0 221
23 Penn State 1-0 147
24 Texas 1-0 135
25 TCU 0-1 130
What a joke!
So apparently, being the defending National Champion with the longest winning streak in the FBS is not enough to get you ranked. Being a Mountain West team and getting down to Baylor, coming back, and then still losing to Baylor, gets you in the polls.
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Chizik not happy with Auburn's performance against Utah St.
Auburn coach Gene Chizik was relieved – but not pleased – after his team’s furious fourth-quarter comeback to beat Utah State on Saturday.
That hadn’t changed Sunday, as the No. 23 Tigers set about preparing for their SEC opener against No. 20 Mississippi State on Saturday.
“We have been spending a lot of time today going back and re-evaluating yesterday’s game,“ Chizik said Sunday. “Spending a lot of time getting some of the issues worked out so we can obviously play better than we did this past week in order to have a chance to play well against Mississippi State.”
For Chizik, most of Auburn’s Saturday struggles boiled down to its play on the offensive and defensive lines.
The Tigers’ rush defense, which gave up an average of 109.1 yards a game, surrendered 227 to the Aggies on Saturday.
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