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Bryan Harsin comments on Auburn crowd, halftime locker room after narrow win over San Jose State
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Bryan Harsin and the Auburn Tigers are 2-0 after a 24-16 win over San Jose State on Saturday night.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Tigers did just enough to beat their Group of 5 foe in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
After the game, Harsin weighed in on his team’s effort. He said he knows the team needs to improve, but added that he’s proud of his guys for not folding under pressure:
On being proud of his team’s effort (via AL.com):
“I was proud of our team. I told them that in the locker room, just to finish and play well enough in the second half to win. We didn’t do that at times on last year’s team. So that was something that we emphasized from January, and we emphasized all the way through fall camp and still into this game. And that was something we talked about in the second half. We didn’t play well like we wanted to in the first half, and then we found ways to get the job done in the second half. So overall, I was proud of our guys from that standpoint.
“Plenty to clean up, we know that. And I think the glaring one was the penalties, number one, we had a lot of penalties tonight and the turnovers. Those two things really factored into the game, and we’ve got to get some on the defensive side to balance that out. But San Jose State, let’s start with them. I knew they would play hard. I know they’re a good football team, I know they’re well coached, and I think you can look around college football and the assumptions that the teams that may not be the top tier teams in everybody’s opinion, they play pretty damn good football. And San Jose State did that again tonight. I thought the crowd really played a factor in the game with some of the false starts they had, so it was good to feel it in the goal line stand that we had down there. That was really good by our crowd, to hear them and feel them in the game. You know, that’s what playing at Auburn should be like. It should be really, really challenging for the opposing teams and I thought we felt that tonight.
“We just didn’t get into a very good rhythm on the offensive side in the first half. I thought the second half we were able to run the ball more effectively, found a few schemes, coaches made some adjustments. And then defensively, we did enough. We pressured the quarterback, we got after him, we sacked him a few times. He’s a slippery guy, but he got out and made a few plays. On the back end, there were some penalties that I’ll go back and look at, but I thought we gave up a few throws that we could have challenged and had a better outcome on our end of things. And then special teams were not really a big factor necessarily tonight. You know, we had the field goal and all that, but I think there were some opportunities for us that we could have utilized special teams a little bit better. So, we’ll take this, and we’ll learn from it, and we’ll apply it going in next week.”
On his coaching performance:
Auburn HC Bryan Harsin on the rough performance: "That starts with me. I've got to coach better… I've got to make sure that we play cleaner, that we operate better."
— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) September 11, 2022
On Auburn’s home atmosphere:
Bryan Harsin compliments Auburn's crowd, says they made a difference with false starts, goal-line stand, etc.
"That's what playing at Auburn should be like — it should be really, really challenging for the opposing team."
— Nathan King (@NathanKing247) September 11, 2022
On the halftime locker room:
Auburn HC Bryan Harsin on the halftime scene: "There weren't guys in the locker room hanging their heads, pouting… That's what happens with bad football teams. And it's not always like a rah-rah kind of thing. It was really matter-of-fact."
— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) September 11, 2022
Auburn faces a tough Penn State team in Jordan-Hare Stadium in Week 3. Can the Tigers regroup and turn in a much stronger performance than they did on Saturday night?
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
