AUBURN | Auburn players showed evident despair as they walked off the field on Saturday after an inexplicable and stunning loss to Mississippi State. Zakoby McClain sat distraught in the end zone. Derick Hall admitted he had shed some tears.
This type of loss can wreck a team, allowing 40 straight points after dominating to a 28-3 score in the first half. All defeats are bad, but this one will stay in the hearts and brains of the Tigers for quite some time. But, there are two more games to play and the issue facing Bryan Harsin, and the entire Auburn program is somehow putting Saturday in the past and focusing on what comes next.
"It comes back to guys loving football, number one," the Auburn coach said. "That's really what it comes down to: you have to have a bunch of guys that love the game and, yeah, that's going to be the challenge."
Keeping the team's morale up might be Harsin's biggest test yet. All the opportunities to make noise in the SEC West and create a path to the title game in Atlanta are gone. Ole Miss defeating Texas A&M would have given the Tigers back control of their destiny in the division race had it not been for Auburn's second-half collapse earlier in the day. Harsin is now going to find out what his team is made of by their reaction.
"Do you have to go that hard? Is this really worth it?" Harsin said. "Are these things we need to be doing? And absolutely, we talked about that in the locker room."
It will be an interesting week seeing how the Tigers come back in every aspect of the game. After scoring touchdowns on the first four drives, the Auburn offense was basically non-existent, finally reaching the end zone again late in the fourth quarter. So strong in the first half, the defense got utterly dominated by Will Rogers and the Bulldogs' offense. And special teams? Well, that unit was a disaster.
A trip to South Carolina awaits in six days and what seemed like an easy victory just weeks ago now looks dangerous. And, let's face it, how motivated will these players be after blowing such a grand opportunity? Harsin isn't worried about how his team reacts on Saturday but in the days leading up to the game.
"I know every Saturday, they want to go out there and win," he said. "But the reality of our football team is who wants to prepare to go out there and win -- and who really has that love for the game and getting themselves ready, day in and day out, to go out there and have a good performance."
As Harsin admits, that will be a challenge for everyone inside the football building starting now. There's still an eight-win regular season possible along with the chances of ruining rival Alabama's playoff hopes, so it's not like there's nothing to play for. Yet, after a complete meltdown on Saturday, the spirit and morale are likely at a low. How Auburn responds will show how much this team believes in themselves, the coaching staff and each other.
