With Auburn trailing Georgia 14-0 late in the second quarter on Saturday, the Tigers had finally found some momentum on offense, moving the ball to the Bulldogs' 41-yard line with a manageable 3rd-and-4 coming up.

And, it seemed that Auburn called the right play as Robby Ashford sprinted up the middle for what would be a big gain, except the Auburn quarterback, without getting touched, fumbled the ball, and the Dawgs recovered it. It's not the first time Ashford has dropped the ball this season on his own. So, what is the reasoning? Is it a case of the yips? Possibly a mental thing? And, it had to be asked, even his hands being too small for the ball?

According to Bryan Harsin, it comes down to adjusting the ball in his hands.

"There's that transition where you're going to go from palming the ball because now you're moving because you might throw it, so you still have that grip, to then you're going to tuck it and become a runner," the Auburn coach said.

At least twice a week earlier against LSU, the same mishap occurred for Ashford. Harsin is confident that his quarterback isn't being careless, but things like that happen for the worse. As a former quarterback, he said he would sometimes drop back to pass, and the ball would slip out unexpectedly.

How do you fix this? The coach thinks it is about tucking the ball and securing it sooner on the run.

"It's probably going to be protected better because those things happen," Harsin said. "And unfortunately, it happens to players, and they learn from that experience. It just happened to be on a drive, and it impacted us. In a big game, you turn the ball over, those things become problematic."

This might be a message for the entire team, as the Tigers have fumbled a whopping 16 times in six games this season. Fortunately, only five of those were recovered by the opposing defense. Nevertheless, Harsin understands that this issue needs to be solved and is sure that Ashford will get better on ball security for the best of the team.

"In order to win games and to be a good football team, that's got to be the most important thing when you have that ball in your hands," the coach said. "And so we'll work on it, he'll get better at it, and that will continue to be an emphasis."