COACH FISHER: First off, Auburn credit. They came in here and played very well early. Got the tempo of the game, the first drives of the game. Played very well and got good momentum in the football game. They're a very good football team.
I thought our kids played hard. I did not -- and we didn't play as well as we wanted to, but our kids battled. We played. We competed in the game. We had some opportunities in the game on offense, on defense, and in special teams to make some plays. And we just were three, four, five plays short. That's what it comes down to when you play really good teams
We have to play better and that all starts with me. It all starts with me as a coach to coach them better, put them in a better position to do those things. That's the responsibility. It's on me. I'll get them right.
They are playing hard. We got to get them to play a little better in critical moments and make some critical plays. We had some opportunities on offense, defense, and special teams to do it. We got momentum late and gave up a drive. Had some chances offensively. We didn't move it and getting a jump -- we jump offsides on the 1. Had some opportunities in the first half. We missed a throw, had a little drop here and there, just missed a block. Had some situations. We got to get to running the ball better. We got to get the running game going, that's for sure. We didn't get that going.
The critical play in the second half, too, we had a turnover. That was one turn turnover in the game. We had a big run and that changed the momentum of the game back in what we did right there. Our kids battled back, gave us a chance.
We had a chance coming down at the end. Wish we would have gotten the stops in which we needed. We have to look at ourselves in all three phases, and we do as a coach make sure we're coaching the right things, doing the right things, putting these kids in the right position and doing that. That starts with us and my staff and that goes on me. So we'll get better, heal up, get ready to go play.
There was a lot of football left. Can't feel story for yourself. Making mistakes on this. Move on and get ready to play Arkansas. And hopefully get better here and get to an off-week and get better and go play.
We don't have a bad football team. We just got to play better. I got to get them to play better. That's my job.
Q. You touched on it, but 56 yards on the ground and quite a few of those in the quarter. How do you get your running game going?
COACH FISHER: Well, I'm going to have to look it and evaluate it. We'll have to look and evaluate why we were stopped and look. And we had some momentum things. In the second half, we got behind and had to throw after we thought we had some adjustments made the second half, they had the first run and got it popped and we got it. But then when they got up three scores, it changed our momentum of trying to get it going. And
we'll have to look at that and evaluate it and then we'll go. We got to do a better job. Got to do a better job of that.
Q. Just a little bit more on the start of each, how you didn't get the field goal there and -
COACH FISHER: Then we missed two field goals. We had two field goals missed, too.
Q. How tough was the start of each half?
COACH FISHER: It was very tough. They get a first drive, and we bust the coverage, and they hit a reverse and get it down in there, and then we have a nice drive. I still think we had a chance on that third down, but we had a nice field goal. That's well within his range, and he can make it, and we'll put him up out there again. He's been kicking the ball extremely well. And then we just missed one.
And then come out the second half, it's still 14-3. So you're still in nice shape. You pop a 12-yard run. You think you got some adjustment. We made some adjustments at halftime. We thought and that, and then you got a turnover. And then you get behind right after that again. The sudden change, wish we could have gotten a stop, but we didn't, and they get points. And so then you're behind, and it changes the dynamic of the game, and we competed through it.
But they're good up front. We knew that going in. They have a very good front, probably as good a front as we'll play. There are some other good ones other there, but that's a really good front. We got to play better and get that fixed. We didn't start the halves very well, and that's something we try to take a lot of pride in, in what we're doing.
Hopefully, we could have got that first down and finished them off in the second half. We had a chance right there in the first half -- excuse me -- to try to get some points there. And we had a missed field goal there. We got that back at least. We had a chance for a field goal there to take some things. But, you know, we just got to keep working. The guys, they didn't mess up because they wanted to. We got to do a better job coaching them.
Q. Coach, we hear a lot about complementary football, and you get the touchdown there to make it 21-10 --
COACH FISHER: You're exactly right.
Q. -- you need defense, didn't make you stop. And then they go down the field and scored another touchdown. How do you get better at playing more complementary football, if possible?
COACH FISHER: You just got to make them aware. And it's not they don't want to, but you know that team over there is going to raise their game. You got to raise your game. You got to make stops. And you can't go out there trying. You can't go try too hard. I'm not saying that for -- I'm saying that for our team in general. You got to go do your job, no matter what the situation, and play it. And you got to explain it to them.
We work a ton of situations. We've worked sudden changes. And they were better at it today than we were. And that's a very big part. You're exactly right. Because you get a stop there, the momentum swings are back. You got a whole quarter. You got plenty of time. You just got to do a better job. And, like I say, they made the plays today in the critical moments.
Q. Coach, how do you feel like y'all did in terms of trying to deal with Bo Nix and his inexperience and things like that?
COACH FISHER: I mean, we never put him in a situation where he had to depend on throwing the football and doing things as a quarterback. They did at the end, but they were able to run the ball, stay in the, as I say, the RPO game, the nickel and dime throws that kept a lot of pressure. He scrambled and did a good job. He pulled the ball and ran with legs very good in the game.
What did he throw for? I'm trying to think. But he was 12 for 20, 100 yards. Didn't make any mistakes. but we never -- that's what I said, we let them get the lead and never put the pressure where you could get them into having to throw the football and put that pressure on. So Bo did a good job, and they did a good job of getting ahead of us and keeping the momentum of the game.
Q. Coach, when you have the schedule like what you have, how difficult is it to kind of keep guys focused? Because there was so much talk about the four games, the three road games and the Alabama game. How hard is it to keep them focused through all 12?
COACH FISHER: Well, I don't think it's very hard at all. We just got to play better. Like I said before, going into this, I thought Auburn was as good as any of those teams. I did going in. I remember we played them last year, and I knew what kind of players they had on defense and offense and the things coming back. I knew that would be -- to me, they're the same caliber football team, and always have been. So I don't think it's focus. We just got to learn to play better and rise to those situations. And I got to do a better job as a coach.
Q. Defensively, a lot of misdirections and stuff kind of had the defense in fits. Is that mostly eye violations, or is it a schematic thing?
COACH FISHER: I think schematic. They do a good job. They did a couple things we hadn't seen, and then we adjusted to those and got those settled down. But that's what they do on the offense. That's their game and what they did.
Like I say, yardage-wise, it wasn't drastic, but it was just key drives. They matched a bunch of plays together. And I think that's what we got to do better on offense. We're moving and doing things. We got to match more consistent plays together at times to finish drives and get more points than just the yards. And I think they did a good job of that today.
I thought our kids played hard. I did not -- and we didn't play as well as we wanted to, but our kids battled. We played. We competed in the game. We had some opportunities in the game on offense, on defense, and in special teams to make some plays. And we just were three, four, five plays short. That's what it comes down to when you play really good teams
We have to play better and that all starts with me. It all starts with me as a coach to coach them better, put them in a better position to do those things. That's the responsibility. It's on me. I'll get them right.
They are playing hard. We got to get them to play a little better in critical moments and make some critical plays. We had some opportunities on offense, defense, and special teams to do it. We got momentum late and gave up a drive. Had some chances offensively. We didn't move it and getting a jump -- we jump offsides on the 1. Had some opportunities in the first half. We missed a throw, had a little drop here and there, just missed a block. Had some situations. We got to get to running the ball better. We got to get the running game going, that's for sure. We didn't get that going.
The critical play in the second half, too, we had a turnover. That was one turn turnover in the game. We had a big run and that changed the momentum of the game back in what we did right there. Our kids battled back, gave us a chance.
We had a chance coming down at the end. Wish we would have gotten the stops in which we needed. We have to look at ourselves in all three phases, and we do as a coach make sure we're coaching the right things, doing the right things, putting these kids in the right position and doing that. That starts with us and my staff and that goes on me. So we'll get better, heal up, get ready to go play.
There was a lot of football left. Can't feel story for yourself. Making mistakes on this. Move on and get ready to play Arkansas. And hopefully get better here and get to an off-week and get better and go play.
We don't have a bad football team. We just got to play better. I got to get them to play better. That's my job.
Q. You touched on it, but 56 yards on the ground and quite a few of those in the quarter. How do you get your running game going?
COACH FISHER: Well, I'm going to have to look it and evaluate it. We'll have to look and evaluate why we were stopped and look. And we had some momentum things. In the second half, we got behind and had to throw after we thought we had some adjustments made the second half, they had the first run and got it popped and we got it. But then when they got up three scores, it changed our momentum of trying to get it going. And
we'll have to look at that and evaluate it and then we'll go. We got to do a better job. Got to do a better job of that.
Q. Just a little bit more on the start of each, how you didn't get the field goal there and -
COACH FISHER: Then we missed two field goals. We had two field goals missed, too.
Q. How tough was the start of each half?
COACH FISHER: It was very tough. They get a first drive, and we bust the coverage, and they hit a reverse and get it down in there, and then we have a nice drive. I still think we had a chance on that third down, but we had a nice field goal. That's well within his range, and he can make it, and we'll put him up out there again. He's been kicking the ball extremely well. And then we just missed one.
And then come out the second half, it's still 14-3. So you're still in nice shape. You pop a 12-yard run. You think you got some adjustment. We made some adjustments at halftime. We thought and that, and then you got a turnover. And then you get behind right after that again. The sudden change, wish we could have gotten a stop, but we didn't, and they get points. And so then you're behind, and it changes the dynamic of the game, and we competed through it.
But they're good up front. We knew that going in. They have a very good front, probably as good a front as we'll play. There are some other good ones other there, but that's a really good front. We got to play better and get that fixed. We didn't start the halves very well, and that's something we try to take a lot of pride in, in what we're doing.
Hopefully, we could have got that first down and finished them off in the second half. We had a chance right there in the first half -- excuse me -- to try to get some points there. And we had a missed field goal there. We got that back at least. We had a chance for a field goal there to take some things. But, you know, we just got to keep working. The guys, they didn't mess up because they wanted to. We got to do a better job coaching them.
Q. Coach, we hear a lot about complementary football, and you get the touchdown there to make it 21-10 --
COACH FISHER: You're exactly right.
Q. -- you need defense, didn't make you stop. And then they go down the field and scored another touchdown. How do you get better at playing more complementary football, if possible?
COACH FISHER: You just got to make them aware. And it's not they don't want to, but you know that team over there is going to raise their game. You got to raise your game. You got to make stops. And you can't go out there trying. You can't go try too hard. I'm not saying that for -- I'm saying that for our team in general. You got to go do your job, no matter what the situation, and play it. And you got to explain it to them.
We work a ton of situations. We've worked sudden changes. And they were better at it today than we were. And that's a very big part. You're exactly right. Because you get a stop there, the momentum swings are back. You got a whole quarter. You got plenty of time. You just got to do a better job. And, like I say, they made the plays today in the critical moments.
Q. Coach, how do you feel like y'all did in terms of trying to deal with Bo Nix and his inexperience and things like that?
COACH FISHER: I mean, we never put him in a situation where he had to depend on throwing the football and doing things as a quarterback. They did at the end, but they were able to run the ball, stay in the, as I say, the RPO game, the nickel and dime throws that kept a lot of pressure. He scrambled and did a good job. He pulled the ball and ran with legs very good in the game.
What did he throw for? I'm trying to think. But he was 12 for 20, 100 yards. Didn't make any mistakes. but we never -- that's what I said, we let them get the lead and never put the pressure where you could get them into having to throw the football and put that pressure on. So Bo did a good job, and they did a good job of getting ahead of us and keeping the momentum of the game.
Q. Coach, when you have the schedule like what you have, how difficult is it to kind of keep guys focused? Because there was so much talk about the four games, the three road games and the Alabama game. How hard is it to keep them focused through all 12?
COACH FISHER: Well, I don't think it's very hard at all. We just got to play better. Like I said before, going into this, I thought Auburn was as good as any of those teams. I did going in. I remember we played them last year, and I knew what kind of players they had on defense and offense and the things coming back. I knew that would be -- to me, they're the same caliber football team, and always have been. So I don't think it's focus. We just got to learn to play better and rise to those situations. And I got to do a better job as a coach.
Q. Defensively, a lot of misdirections and stuff kind of had the defense in fits. Is that mostly eye violations, or is it a schematic thing?
COACH FISHER: I think schematic. They do a good job. They did a couple things we hadn't seen, and then we adjusted to those and got those settled down. But that's what they do on the offense. That's their game and what they did.
Like I say, yardage-wise, it wasn't drastic, but it was just key drives. They matched a bunch of plays together. And I think that's what we got to do better on offense. We're moving and doing things. We got to match more consistent plays together at times to finish drives and get more points than just the yards. And I think they did a good job of that today.
