Bryan Harsin is speaking to the media following Auburn's first spring practice. It's his first interview with us since the bowl game. Just a reminder: "We're back."
** Excited to be doing this live and in person. He's happy to have us here ... for now.
** Feels like it did a few years ago, a normal first day of practice. Plenty to work on. Spirited practice.
** Took advantage of first practice. Did basics, working on fundamentals. In helmets and pads (shells). Been emphasizing focus with guys to maximize opportunities in meetings and on field.
** Go over today's practice tomorrow and then get back after it on Wednesday.
** Real pleased with winter workouts. Stronger as a team than we've been. Not having to spend as much time on the details as we did early on. The weight room work showed up today.
** Freshman safety Caleb Wooden had a scoop and score and pick DK forced fumble. Players that did well: Leota, D Hall, Pritchett, Kaufman, Wright, Cam Riley.
** On plan with QBs: Probably not gonna cut it down as quickly as you'd like. Looking at every single thing they do. Their life is like a documentary. Some guys will get more reps different days. Going to try and balance that out until we get to a scrimmage and let them play. After that, some guys may get more than others. Want to be fair and reward guys that are improving, stepping up.
** At end of spring, we'll evaluate QBs on their play, leadership and take it into the summer. We'll take it in stages. There can be a lot of improvement made in the summer when guys coming out of spring know what they need to work on.
** Did a lot of good things on defense last year. Some things we'll simplify. Schmedding is very detailed. He can correct things on the field quickly. Harsin appreciates the way he operates. If there's something we don't do well, he'll fix it or take it away. He's constantly working on something to get better at.
** On if he's learned anything about himself as a coach this year: "Yea, yea, there's a lot." We all went through the same thing last season but we all saw it differently, had a different perspective. One thing he's learned over time is just to simplify things in football and your life. I've learned a lot being in a new place over the past year. The family is the main thing, and your team, your health -- these are the important things. Tenth year as head coach. Worked with a lot of great people.
** Players need to get their degree here, be good teammates and work hard to win a starting position/playing time. That will lead you to where you're going next. Trying to get that message to our guys and living it at the same time.
** There's really no days off or downtime in what we do. There's always people to talk to, recruits, film to watch. We all have things to do, but we have to prioritize our time. Our families go through this too. We need time to recharge. That time off when things were happening, I wanted to make sure my wife would have time to recharge and we could do things that we planned together. We knew what the truth was the whole time.
** Every position is open. You're coming in here to earn a spot. Whoever the best players are and they earn it and they make the plays and players feel good about those guys, those are the guys that will play.
** Caleb Wooden has chance. He's got to earn it and learn what's required of him.
** Normally doing paintball is something we would do when we first got here. COVID kept us from doing a lot of things like having players over for dinner. It's hard to build chemistry. We had to be creative. Just like doing media face-to-face, it's completely different. On paintball, the whole team decided that the coaching staff was the enemy and we retreated.
** Chemistry is important. You want guys in the locker room that are positive about playing in games. We've had both (positive and negative). As we move forward, we want everybody to be on the same page.
** Eric Keisau is low ego, high output. He's very organized. Does a great job of planning. He's a football junkie, loves watching practices, other teams, finding ways to make us better. He'll listen to ideas and process it and see if it fits. If it's best for us, he'll add it in.
** Are you bitter about what went down? No. There were a lot of things that happened. I don't see the value at this point of looking back in the rearview mirror. There's other people involved, family, and I'm not saying they have to operate like I do. Took a ton of positives out of what happened: Saw players on the team step up and lead, set up meetings to speak with people about our program. Guys came back here to do that, coaches did the same thing. Got a lot of mail and emails of support. Nobody want to go through that but I saw a lot of things that were positive.
** There's a lot of programs and people out there that will use it against us. It's going to be a constant battle of what other people have to say. What's happened in college football is different than I was at Boise. Now you have all these other ways to recruit and promote your program. Some people are using it for good, some are using it for....
** We're going to talk about Auburn football. There's a lot of players and a lot of families that want their sons to be a part of our program. Doing things the right way -- that stuff still matters.
** Message to people that supported him: Thank you and I appreciate you and so do the coaches and players that are a part of this program. Thought we had come productive conversations. You don't go through things like that and don't learn things and grow from it. We understand that we all need to be pulling in the same direction for Auburn football, every aligned and trying to help build this program. We all want to win, play for championships and graduate players. Going to Toomer's and showing support is important because that's what people see. The key to success is everybody pulling in the same direction.
** I wanted Shedrick Jackson back. I think his best football is ahead of him. Ike Hilliard has been a great addition to the staff. He's a pro. Shed is a leader. He has qualities about him that we'll see more of this year. Who he is as a person is what we want in this program. Ja'Varrius gives us more experience> He's done some good things, should be even more productive and that's up to us. Tar'Varish Dawson's whole demeanor and focus has changed and that has a lot to do with the changes in that WR room and the leadership.
** Last season taught us we need to finish strong. You have to finish if you want to win anything. There were plenty of things that were self-inflicted and we'll be better from that, but you also have to be ready to play in this league. Everything you do matters in the SEC. All the little things in practice and meetings will show up on Saturday, and we're going to get better at that. I thought our guys played hard. Our guys played hard and fought in the Iron Bowl. It didn't go our way but we're proud of the way we competed. We'll build on that and move forward. More important to what I learned, our players learned it to. They came back because they believe we can be successful, and I believe that too. Saw that today with the energy we had from the players at practice. The guys we bring in this summer are going to add more value to what we do.
*****THAT'S ALL*****
** Excited to be doing this live and in person. He's happy to have us here ... for now.
** Feels like it did a few years ago, a normal first day of practice. Plenty to work on. Spirited practice.
** Took advantage of first practice. Did basics, working on fundamentals. In helmets and pads (shells). Been emphasizing focus with guys to maximize opportunities in meetings and on field.
** Go over today's practice tomorrow and then get back after it on Wednesday.
** Real pleased with winter workouts. Stronger as a team than we've been. Not having to spend as much time on the details as we did early on. The weight room work showed up today.
** Freshman safety Caleb Wooden had a scoop and score and pick DK forced fumble. Players that did well: Leota, D Hall, Pritchett, Kaufman, Wright, Cam Riley.
** On plan with QBs: Probably not gonna cut it down as quickly as you'd like. Looking at every single thing they do. Their life is like a documentary. Some guys will get more reps different days. Going to try and balance that out until we get to a scrimmage and let them play. After that, some guys may get more than others. Want to be fair and reward guys that are improving, stepping up.
** At end of spring, we'll evaluate QBs on their play, leadership and take it into the summer. We'll take it in stages. There can be a lot of improvement made in the summer when guys coming out of spring know what they need to work on.
** Did a lot of good things on defense last year. Some things we'll simplify. Schmedding is very detailed. He can correct things on the field quickly. Harsin appreciates the way he operates. If there's something we don't do well, he'll fix it or take it away. He's constantly working on something to get better at.
** On if he's learned anything about himself as a coach this year: "Yea, yea, there's a lot." We all went through the same thing last season but we all saw it differently, had a different perspective. One thing he's learned over time is just to simplify things in football and your life. I've learned a lot being in a new place over the past year. The family is the main thing, and your team, your health -- these are the important things. Tenth year as head coach. Worked with a lot of great people.
** Players need to get their degree here, be good teammates and work hard to win a starting position/playing time. That will lead you to where you're going next. Trying to get that message to our guys and living it at the same time.
** There's really no days off or downtime in what we do. There's always people to talk to, recruits, film to watch. We all have things to do, but we have to prioritize our time. Our families go through this too. We need time to recharge. That time off when things were happening, I wanted to make sure my wife would have time to recharge and we could do things that we planned together. We knew what the truth was the whole time.
** Every position is open. You're coming in here to earn a spot. Whoever the best players are and they earn it and they make the plays and players feel good about those guys, those are the guys that will play.
** Caleb Wooden has chance. He's got to earn it and learn what's required of him.
** Normally doing paintball is something we would do when we first got here. COVID kept us from doing a lot of things like having players over for dinner. It's hard to build chemistry. We had to be creative. Just like doing media face-to-face, it's completely different. On paintball, the whole team decided that the coaching staff was the enemy and we retreated.
** Chemistry is important. You want guys in the locker room that are positive about playing in games. We've had both (positive and negative). As we move forward, we want everybody to be on the same page.
** Eric Keisau is low ego, high output. He's very organized. Does a great job of planning. He's a football junkie, loves watching practices, other teams, finding ways to make us better. He'll listen to ideas and process it and see if it fits. If it's best for us, he'll add it in.
** Are you bitter about what went down? No. There were a lot of things that happened. I don't see the value at this point of looking back in the rearview mirror. There's other people involved, family, and I'm not saying they have to operate like I do. Took a ton of positives out of what happened: Saw players on the team step up and lead, set up meetings to speak with people about our program. Guys came back here to do that, coaches did the same thing. Got a lot of mail and emails of support. Nobody want to go through that but I saw a lot of things that were positive.
** There's a lot of programs and people out there that will use it against us. It's going to be a constant battle of what other people have to say. What's happened in college football is different than I was at Boise. Now you have all these other ways to recruit and promote your program. Some people are using it for good, some are using it for....
** We're going to talk about Auburn football. There's a lot of players and a lot of families that want their sons to be a part of our program. Doing things the right way -- that stuff still matters.
** Message to people that supported him: Thank you and I appreciate you and so do the coaches and players that are a part of this program. Thought we had come productive conversations. You don't go through things like that and don't learn things and grow from it. We understand that we all need to be pulling in the same direction for Auburn football, every aligned and trying to help build this program. We all want to win, play for championships and graduate players. Going to Toomer's and showing support is important because that's what people see. The key to success is everybody pulling in the same direction.
** I wanted Shedrick Jackson back. I think his best football is ahead of him. Ike Hilliard has been a great addition to the staff. He's a pro. Shed is a leader. He has qualities about him that we'll see more of this year. Who he is as a person is what we want in this program. Ja'Varrius gives us more experience> He's done some good things, should be even more productive and that's up to us. Tar'Varish Dawson's whole demeanor and focus has changed and that has a lot to do with the changes in that WR room and the leadership.
** Last season taught us we need to finish strong. You have to finish if you want to win anything. There were plenty of things that were self-inflicted and we'll be better from that, but you also have to be ready to play in this league. Everything you do matters in the SEC. All the little things in practice and meetings will show up on Saturday, and we're going to get better at that. I thought our guys played hard. Our guys played hard and fought in the Iron Bowl. It didn't go our way but we're proud of the way we competed. We'll build on that and move forward. More important to what I learned, our players learned it to. They came back because they believe we can be successful, and I believe that too. Saw that today with the energy we had from the players at practice. The guys we bring in this summer are going to add more value to what we do.
*****THAT'S ALL*****
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