Malcolm Simmons and some of the receivers went on a trip to help form a deeper bond between them. Eugene Asante used the bye week to refocus on the second half of the season and the team's goal.

Philip Blidi? Well, the senior knows what everyone needed heading into final six games: rest.

"The biggest benefit of this bye week was really just getting our bodies back," he said. "We've been — really a lot of wear and tear and a lot of weeks of physical football. Being able to just get back in the training room and take a step back and really like have time to focus on your body."

Six straight games to open the season would take its toll on everyone, but Auburn has been playing a lot of young players, including some freshmen being thrown into the fire in their first year of college football. Simmons is one of them seeing more snaps than most as a first-year player, and while the bye week definitely helped physical-wise, it was also essential to pivot toward the remaining part of the schedule as the Tigers try to avoid its fourth-straight losing season.

"Get ready to win these next six games," he said. "It's going to be a big task for us, but we can do it. So just us getting our rest this bye week and coming back hard so that we can win these next six games.

Asante agreed with the wide receiver.

"Sometimes, as football players, you need time to refocus and rededicate yourself to your craft and everything you're doing," the linebacker said. "I think the bye week was good in terms of trying to refocus ourselves on everything we need to do and be able to understand we still have goals we want to accomplish with this team. Obviously, we had goals at the beginning of the season. Just readjusting and pivoting our goals and understanding that we can finish the season strong."