DJ Durkin made the message clear at halftime of Saturday's game against Cal: Auburn's defense wasn't meeting expectations. Fernando Mendoza finished the first 30 minutes 19-of-21 for 205 yards and two touchdown passes as the Golden Bears took a 14-7 lead into the locker room.

Keionte Scott agreed with his coordinator's statement.

"We weren't playing to our standards and what we wanted to do," he said. "And at the end of the day, we all knew that and he just harped on that and made sure everybody's doing their job and playing up to our standard and how we want to be as a room."

The defense answered the call, holding the Bears to 110 total yards in the second half, but the Tigers ultimately fell short in a 21-14 defeat. Scott has been through some tough losses, so he could show his leadership with the younger guys on how to respond.

"Sometimes things go your way, sometimes things don't go your way, but this is just a test to our perseverance and how we want to get things done, and it is just going to show on how we can not spread apart, but come together in moments like this earlier in the season and just go back to the drawing board and figure out how to get things done," Scott said.

As for Scott himself, a hamstring injury has been keeping him from playing at his full potential after moving to cornerback this offseason. Struggling in the first half, he then played at nickel after the midpoint of the game while also returning punts. Cal's punter, though, didn't make it easy on him.

"He forced me to have to let some of those balls go and put 'em inside the 10 where I personally can't take that trip back to try to make a play on those things," Scott said. "So I muffed one early in the year. One of my goals was to not muff one this year and let the ball get ahead of me."

As for his play, the senior knows he has to improve to achieve all he wants after deciding to come back for a last season on the Plains.

"I can make those plays on that ball," Scott said. "Just got to go back to the drawing board and watch the tape this whole week and just seeing some of the small things I was doing on tape, so just have to be better. Like I said, that's not the style of play, that's not how I want to play the game and the year that I'm trying to have, that's not what was shown on tape."