AUBURN | Want to play quarterback under Bryan Harsin? Be prepared to prove you are the right man for the job at every moment.

The Auburn head coach is trying to get Bo Nix, TJ Finley and the rest of the Tigers to understand that attitude. It goes even deeper than that. It has to do with everything a quarterback does.

“It's got to be from when you get up in the morning and you show up to practice and the first throw you take or the handoff or the cadence,” Harsin said. “You can't just show up out there and then use the wrong cadence. The old, 'My bad.' That's not what we want, and that's not what's going to help the other 10 guys on the field.”

No days off. No moments off. Every snap must be treated as if a game is on the line. That’s the attitude he demands from his quarterbacks. It’s no surprise that one of the words Harsin uses the most is consistent. He was a quarterback himself and understands that with all the attention and accolades that come with the position, there is an attentiveness to detail that the leader of an offense must possess.

“I always believe at the quarterback position, every rep you take is like a game rep,” Harsin said. “You've got to treat it like that because there are so many different things that happen throughout practice and in the game.”

When he says every snap, he means it. Handing off the ball to a running back? Better get it exactly right and not have the ball hit the ground. Harsin used Peyton Manning as an example for executing play-action correctly, detailing how deliberate he was with the process, sticking the ball out to show to defenders in hopes of the trickery working.

Harsin has admittedly seen positives out of the quarterbacks, noting their ability to overcome a mistake, fix it and not do the same thing twice.

“They come back and they'll make the play the next time,” Harsin said. “Very rarely have I seen so far that we've had back-to-back negative plays and that's a key component to that group.”

Consistent is a word you have and will hear a lot more during fall camp and into the season. It’s the thing that Auburn needs at every position, especially at quarterback. Harsin’s bound to beat that mantra into the heads of Nix and company.

“The biggest thing that I hope these guys are understanding and we're getting through to them, is just how important every single thing we do at that position is,” Harsin said.