AUBURN | Lost in the discussion of Gus Malzahn’s future at Auburn or the Tigers’ 6-4 record is the fact that earlier this summer it was unclear if there would even be a college football season.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament and all spring sports. Student athletes didn’t start returning to campus until the first week of June and the SEC didn’t announce a 10-game, conference-only schedule until mid-August.
“I just told our team how proud I am of those guys for the sacrifice they made to be able to play 10 SEC games, 10 games without having a setback other than that one week,” said Gus Malzahn following Auburn’s 24-10 win at Mississippi State. “But the sacrifice they’ve made to play, I can’t say enough great things about our players. Our team has great character, and we have the majority of those guys back, so really excited about that.”
Running back Tank Bigsby was the star of Saturday night’s win at Davis Wade Stadium, rushing for 192 yards on 26 carries, both career highs. The true freshman has overcome a lot of the normal freshmen obstacles along with a hip injury and all the issues with the pandemic to surpass Bo Jackson with the second-most rushing yards by a freshman in school history.
“This has been the longest season ever in my life,” Bigsby said. “It's been a grind. It's been a real grind, to be honest with you. Nobody knows what goes on inside. They just see what goes on on the outside, you know. Just being able to get through it -- everybody said we wasn't going to play, and we got through it. We played 10 SEC games as a freshman. It was just different, being out there and playing different teams in the SEC, not playing nobody out of our conference. It was different.
“It was tough, but you know, we got through it, and with this pandemic going on we did real good with that. Our team's been looking out for each other.”
Malzahn is hoping to give his players and staff some down time before they have to start preparing for a potential bowl game.
“I want to give them about two weeks off to do nothing but relax their mind and body. It’s been a physical, mental and emotional grind. And our coaches, they need a break too,” Malzahn said.
The mental and emotional side of playing during the pandemic is one you can’t really see tuning in for a game on Saturday or even speaking to a player or coach on Zoom during the week, but they that had to experience it every day.
“It has been a crazy grind,” said Derick Hall, who had two of AU’s six sacks against the Bulldogs. “Just coming in on June 4 all the way to now, that’s about eight months or so. Just playing non-stop and being around the same guys everyday and unable to see your family, it definitely took a physical toll playing 10-straight SEC games. With COVID and everything going around, mentally it definitely took a toll on us.”
The college football playoffs and the majority of the bowl bids will be announced Sunday, Dec. 20.
