Auburn defensive coordinator isn’t concerned with possible drop off after bye week
By Jason Hall
Published:
Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele wasn’t concerned with whether his team would remain sharp after last week’s bye, according to 247Sports.
“Concern is not the right word,” Steele said. “It’s just a football game. It’s about what we do, and it still comes back to, ‘Hey, get your hat in your gap. Do it with physicality. Do it with technique, and fly your tail to the football.’ That’s what we control.
“Well, if you look at it, that’s not something I control anyway. What plays they call, when they call them, who they’ve got on the field, we don’t control that. We control what defense we call, what gap that our players have, what zone they have, what man they have and how they play that. And so, when it’s in your control, concern’s not an issue.”
No. 21 Auburn will be facing a ranked Arkansas team, currently ranked No. 3 in passing offense and No. 4 in scoring offense in the SEC this season. The challenge for Steele and company is to slow down the Hogs running game enough to make Arkansas one-dimensional, something Alabama and Texas A&M did to beat them.
According to Steele, linebacker Deshaun Davis’ tweaked hamstring has healed and he’ll be able to play in Saturday’s game.
“I think it was important for all of us to catch our breath,” Steele said. “There’s a lot of hours spent in this building by players and coaches. I think, if it’s used correctly, you can make yourself a better football player. But you can also get fresh, if you will, because that routine of a game-week routine — OK, we know exactly what we’re going to do every day at practice. We know what we’re going to do every day as a coaching staff at a certain time. After a while, it’s nice to get a little bit of different way of doing it.”
Jason covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
