Confident but work to do entering bye week

AUBURN | Auburn will enter its bye week on a high note with Saturday’s 38-23 win at No. 19 Arkansas to improve to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference.

The Tigers are right in the middle of the SEC West race, tied with Ole Miss in second and just a half-game behind Alabama in first.

“To be on the road and to win — and going into a bye week — man, all of these things are big for our program. That gives us a chance to create some momentum as we go into this bye week and do some things,” said Auburn coach Bryan Harsin. “I am excited. I enjoyed that game. I enjoyed watching our guys on the sidelines. I enjoyed listening to our staff communicate during that game.

“There were things that we've all been working on that fell into place today. That doesn't mean we have to stop working on those and everything is figured out, but I do think that this week of preparation, the focus that we showed during the game, that carried over into this game. That's one of the reasons we were able to win this game.”

Even during a 15-point road win over a ranked team, Auburn showed that there was still plenty of room for improvement as it prepares to host the 14th-ranked Rebels Oct. 30.

The Tigers managed just 135 rushing yards against the Razorbacks after Ole Miss put up 324 a week earlier. AU was just 4 of 10 on third downs, had an interception that was converted into a touchdown, and nearly had a costly fumble at its own 16-yard line.

Defensively, AU gave up 460 yards including 232 on the ground and allowed Arkansas to convert 10 of 19 third downs.

“Overall, we'll take that. We'll learn from it. We'll apply it to the bye week and the things that we have to do in order to get better,” said Harsin. “That'll be in addition to all the other games that we've played. And now we have a chance to focus on ourselves and not focus on an opponent before we have to go play again in the next one, which will be good for us.

“We need it. We need to get a few guys healthy. We need some time to correct a few things, make examples of a lot of the positive stuff that we've doing and spend more time on that and just talk to our guys about this is how it looks. This is how we can get to these things through our preparation and hopefully continue to build on that."

AUBURN’S REMAINING SCHEDULE

OCT. 30 OLE MISS

NOV. 6 at Texas A&M

NOV. 13 MISSISSIPPI STATE

NOV. 20 at South Carolina

NOV. 27 ALABAMA