Auburn’s defense put together a solid performance on Saturday against Kentucky. It wasn’t a perfect one by any means, but the Tigers held the Wildcats at bay when it mattered to improve to 1-0 on the young season.

During “SEC Football Final”, SEC Network analyst Gene Chizik, who coached the Tigers from 2009-2012, discussed the performance of the defense, which forced 3 Wildcat turnovers, and how it was able to propel the team to a win despite a little bit of a slow start.

“Defensively, you saw a young defense grow up today,” Chizik said, according to 247Sports.com. “They didn’t play great in the first half. Kentucky went to some unbalanced sets, they were running the football. But…(defensive coordinator) Kevin Steele just kept at it. He didn’t complicate the game plan, he let guys start playing fast.”

Chizik also complimented the secondary, which allowed 239 passing yards and held Terry Wilson to 6.5 yards an attempt despite allowing some big plays.

“They also replaced almost the entire secondary,” he said. “These guys at Kentucky couldn’t separate from the secondary most of the day. [Auburn] smothered the routes.”