Ready to air it out

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AUBURN, Ala. | If the situation dictates, Rhett Lashlee says a passing offense that's ranked 116th in the nation is ready to air it out.

"We're going to do what the game dictates," Lashlee said. "If we need to throw for 300 yards, we're prepared to give it all we got to do that."

That would nearly double Auburn's average of 153.8 passing yards per game. Which quarterback would be slinging the ball around is still a question.

Like Gus Malzahn a day earlier, Lashlee is unwilling to commit to Sean White as the Tigers' starting quarterback. White replaced Jeremy Johnson after the junior had seven turnovers in the first three games.

"You know, we're just going to take it game-by-game right now," Lashlee said. "Sean has done, in the two games he's played, a very nice job. I think he's protecting the ball well through the air for the most part, he's making good decisions, he's making accurate throws and I think our guys are responding to him.

"Jeremy has handled it very well, he's practicing hard. So, yeah, those guys have to compete every day, just like everyone else does, but they both have to be ready to play. You never know what's going to happen in a game."

In two games, White has completed 26-of-38 passes for 296 yards with one interception. He's yet to throw his first college touchdown.

White completed 6-of-10 passes against San Jose State Saturday with two drops. He only attempted two passes in the second half.

"The way the game turned he did everything we asked him to do, made really good decisions, made a couple of really good throws, took a few shots and he managed the game the way that game unfolded very well," Lashlee said. "The one thing that is not going to be tolerated was the ball was sloppy. It wasn't just him. He had three times, Peyton had one and then we had another time where the ball was snapped.

"The ball can't be on the ground like it was. It's unacceptable and it's something that has to be fixed."

Lashlee said attempting only 10 passes against the Spartans came about because of the way the game unfolded and was not pre-planned. Five of Auburn's 10 possessions started in SJSU territory, with three of those ending in touchdowns.

After averaging 3.3 yards per rush in the first three quarters, Auburn rushed for 139 yards on 15 carries in the fourth, an average of 9.3 yards per carry.

"Just the way the game unfolded after we got up 21-7, we were never in a situation where we had to throw it a lot and we were running it effectively, so it just didn't call for it," Lashlee said.

MORE FROM LASHLEE

On the play of Peyton Barber…

"He did a lot of good things. Five touchdowns is a lot. He was fortunate to get a couple right there on the 1- or 2-yard line, he did a nice job of punching it in, something we did better this week than we did the week before. But he tends to get better as the game wears on -- third and fourth quarter -- which is good. When we needed to try to run the ball to put the game out of reach at the end, he had three nice long runs and just did a good job of closing things out. Other than the one time the ball was on the ground, I thought he had a really good game."

On Kerryon Johnson as the Wildcat QB…

"That's something that he'll be very good at. He did versions of it in high school, so he's caught snaps before. He's comfortable with it. obviously we have a lot of experience with that kind of stuff and we think he fits it very well. For the first game doing it, I thought he did a nice job and I think he'll get better and better at it."

On having five explosive plays against SJSU…

"From an explosive play standpoint, we still didn't have the number that we would like, but the ones we got were timely and needed. If you just look at our touchdown drives, just about every one had one in it. The first one, we got a really short field, but the second one Roc has an explosive play on the first play of the drive and we score a touchdown. You've got another one where Duke catches the tunnel and has an explosive play on second-and-long and we score a touchdown. You've got another one where Ricardo make an explosive catch on a third down and we score a touchdown. Peyton, obviously his touchdown is an explosive run in and of itself. The ones that we had were timely and that's the way we've always been. That's the way a lot of people are. If you can get an explosive play on a drive, your odds of scoring a touchdown go up greatly, so that's going to continue to be a point of emphasis. Right now we're starting to execute at a better lever; we're just not explosive enough and that's something we'll continue to work on in getting those playmakers the ball that need it, like Kerryon in the Wildcat or what have you. It give us more opportunities for that."

On the fumbles against SJSU…

"As far as ball security, we just got to squeeze the ball tighter. With the exception of the third-down run that Sean made a nice scramble, got us in the fourth-and-short scenario, he was stretching to try to get the first down, Peyton and him didn't have poor ball security. They just got to squeeze the ball. Sometimes the ball's not out here being careless; you got to squeeze the ball. It's that simple, but we can't put the ball on the ground like that. We'll do everything we need to do to make sure that they understand the importance of that."

On Jason Smith's dropped pass…

"We got to make that play, that would be a touchdown."

On the play of the H-backs…

"I thought yesterday Kamryn Pettway did very well. He was very physical. He had some great hustle plays that don't go noticed. On the fumble that Sean had where he got hit pretty good, he recovered it because he was hustling. At the point of attack, he was really physical, getting some movement. Chandler Cox did some really good things in space. He was better in protection which was a point of emphasis. Being two guys that have only played five games, I'd like to think they're really going to improve as the season goes on but I like the physicality I saw from Pettway."

On Robert Leff playing tight end…

"He did a really good job. That's something that he give us is play with the tight end more and do some things like that. He was physical. I think he graded out perfectly as far as J.D.'s assignments and did some really good things."