In his first appearance at the circus that is Auburn's annual assistants media day, tailbacks coach Carnell "Cadillac" Williams answered most questions with an easy-going tone, smiling while he discussed how blessed he feels to be a coach at his alma mater.

His eyes then widened and his tenor shifted from laid-back to pressing when asked about his “No. 1 job” with his new group of backs — ball security.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Williams said as he placed his palms on the table and leaned forward, nearly grazing a recorder with his nose while he shook his head. “We carry the hopes and dreams of the team when we carry that football. … I let them guys know: If you fumble, you cannot play here.”

His seriousness about that topic reflects that of the man leading the program, Gus Malzahn. Any college football coach would rather his tailbacks hold onto the ball, but Malzahn has a history of cracking down on even the most talented running backs if they can’t tighten up on the pigskin consistently.

As a former SEC back himself, Williams understands that no one can be perfect when it comes to fumbles. “Things like that happen,” he said. But when a turnover stems from poor fundamentals, that’s when he and the rest of Auburn’s coaching staff have to crack down.

“That's something that, you know, myself and Coach Malzahn are just not gonna put up with,” Williams said. “They know how the turnover ratio, I explained to them, in the NFL ... If you win the turnover ratio, you've got like an 80 percent — it's very, very high that you've got a chance to win the game.

“So that's one thing that we can't do, is self-inflicted wounds. And that's a self-inflicted wound, is putting the ball on the ground. So that's something that I stress each and every day, and we will continue to do, ball drills and all them kind of things each and every day to not fumble the football.”

Williams has been impressed with his group’s dedication to ball security this fall, he said. Through two scrimmages, the Tiger running backs have lost a fumble just once. Their leading man, JaTarvious Whitlow, attributes that to extra emphasis on gripping drills — with some help from the defense.

“When you know you're like dead tired and don't want to do it, (Malzahn) goes over there and does ball security drills, so you know you're going to get it,” Whitlow said. “… And the defense helps with that, too. After they blow the whistle, they come over there and try to hit the ball, try to knock it out. The coaches get mad at that, but you're like, 'He done blew the whistle, though!'”

A lack of ball security plagued Whitlow on Auburn’s most killer fumble last season. As he bolted toward the end-zone against Mississippi State, a defensive back poked the ball out just inches from the goal-line. The Bulldogs recovered it for a touchback. Auburn lost 23-9.

“We most definitely have improved in that,” Whitlow said of ball security this offseason.

The other newbie on the offensive staff, coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kenny Dillingham, is echoing Williams with his emphasis on turnover ratio. But Williams’ group has a handful of returning faces. The quarterbacks are as green as can be.

Dillingham’s bunch is statistically the least experienced group in the FBS entering this season in terms of throwing the football. Bo Nix, Joey Gatewood, Cord Sandberg and Wil Appleton are a combined 1-for-2 passing after Sandberg and Gatewood played just a handful of snaps last year.

With his new starting candidates — Nix and Gatewood — Dillingham said his top teaching point in camp has been interceptions. Both QBs were elite prospects out of high school. But they’re not able to make the same throws they made back then against Auburn’s veteran defense.

“For us, it's just the emphasis on we can't put the ball in jeopardy,” Dillingham said. “There's a time to force balls; there's a time not.”

For all the coaches’ attentiveness in the preseason, it's mostly precautionary. Auburn was third in the SEC last season with a turnover margin of nine. Meanwhile, the Tigers’ first 2019 opponent, Oregon, ranked second in its conference with 23 takeaways.

“The game is that simple,” Dillingham said. “The team who has the ball is the only team allowed to score.”