In Auburn’s first game of the season and the first time since former Auburn coach Pat Dye passed away in June, it was all about playing for “60 minutes” in the season opener.
Along with a moment of silence, stickers on players' helmets donning a Dye-inspired logo, Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn also chose to wear an outfit similar to what Dye wore when he coached at Auburn.
“We talked about playing and fighting for 60 minutes,” Malzahn said. “We honored Coach Dye today. We’re gonna do that for the rest of the season. That’s really what we talked about and our guys did that.”
While the Tigers led 8-7 at halftime, there were clear issues to clean up on both sides of the ball.
The Wildcats had converted on 8-of-10 third-down attempts and held the ball for over 21 minutes while Auburn had it for just under nine. The Tigers also had four penalties for 30 yards in the first half, including a targeting on Derick Hall that brought back a 100-yard pick-six from Roger McCreary.
In the first 30 minutes, it simply wasn’t pretty for either team. But in the final 30 minutes, Auburn adjusted on both sides of the ball and turned on the jets.
On the offensive side of the ball, the offensive line was changed around with Tashawn Manning being pulled for Keiondre Jones, moving Brandon Council to left guard. At left tackle, Austin Troxell subbed in for Alec Jackson at the tail end of the third quarter.
The anchor of the group, Nick Brahms, enjoyed having a rotation of guys play.
“I really liked how we got everybody in there for game experience,” Brahms said. “We know those guys can play in a game, and we trust them. So I think that’s big for them. And for everybody just working with different people, I really liked how we did today.”
On the defensive side of the ball, the Tigers were forced to shore up on third down, with Kentucky converting on 8-of-10 attempts in the first half.
The Wildcats went 4-of-9 in the second half, and Auburn held them to just 150 yards of total offense.
Linebacker Owen Pappoe, who recorded eight tackles, one sack and recovered a fumble, says the message was centered around "60 minutes" at halftime.
“Just 60 minutes, 60 minutes, play the whole way through,” Pappoe said. “We knew we had some mistakes, some misfits, some busted coverage in the first half but we knew in that second half we gotta come out even stronger so nobody panicked. We got on the board, saw what we needed to fix and executed.”
Auburn came into the game wanting to honor Dye, and Pappoe feels like the Tigers accomplished that.
“Very happy,” Pappoe said with a smile and a laugh on whether or not Dye would’ve been happy with this game.
Honoring Dye was something that meant a lot to quarterback Bo Nix, whose father, Patrick, played for Dye.
“I felt like we did a good job of playing 60 minutes like he always talked about,” Nix said. “That was a big emphasis for us this week was we wanted to play 60 minutes -- not only for him, but also because, I mean, all that meant to Auburn.”
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