Laying his guts on the line

AUBURN | Marcus Harris had a tremendous game against top-ranked Georgia two weeks ago but Hugh Freeze is concerned Auburn’s standout defensive lineman is playing too many snaps.

That concern is heightened even more playing in the rugged SEC. A week before UGA, it was at Texas A&M and now it’s LSU in Tiger Stadium.

“Marcus Harris just played his guts out,” said AU coach Hugh Freeze. “But he’s having to play too many snaps. You look at dang Georgia over there, and every dang time we sub, there’s another six of them that come in. It shows in the fourth quarter.”

Against the Bulldogs, Harris finished with seven tackles, two tackles-for-loss, a forced fumble and pass breakup in 51 snaps.

For his part, Harris is willing to play just as many snaps against LSU, or even more if needed. But he also recognizes UGA out-gained AU 142-55 yards in the fourth quarter.

“I’m the type of player that likes to affect the game and every play so I want to be out there,” said Harris. “But I also understand it’s a four-quarter game so I can’t be getting so many reps because my legs will get tired when the fourth quarter hits and I need to be at my best. It’s kinda good to manage those snaps within a game.”

The problem with limiting Harris’ snaps is AU’s lack of depth along the defensive line, which was further hampered with starting defensive end Mosiah Nasili-Kite’s season-ending biceps injury against UGA.

Newcomers such as junior college transfer Bobby Jamison-Travis and true freshman Darron Reed many have to take on a bigger role the second half of the season.

Of course, throwing inexperienced defensive linemen into a matchup against a high-powered LSU offense might not be the best solution this week. LSU leads the SEC averaging 44.8 points per game and Jayden Daniels is the top-rated quarterback averaging 398.5 yards of total offense.

“You can’t just have one individual run past the quarterback and he finds a lane,” said Harris. “We have to rush as a group. It’s going to be really the first running quarterback that’s this elusive and this fast that we’ve faced this season.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.