Auburn’s defense has been somewhat of a “bend don’t break” kind of unit.
The team has occasionally felt like it has bled yardage against its competition, even though Auburn is (usually) holding teams out of the endzone.
Are Auburn fans spoiled after having one of the best defenses in the nation during the Kevin Steele era?
Justin Ferguson of the ‘Auburn Observer‘ joined Zac Blackerby and the “Locked on Auburn Podcast” to talk about why this Auburn team is different and how fans should meter their expectations in year one of the Bryan Harsin era.
I think there is so much that’s unknown with this team… I just think (the Harsin era) is going to be different. Auburn fans for years never had a defense that they liked, and then they got a stretch with Kevin Steele where they were playing dominant defense. I think this year’s denfese has talent, and Derek Mason has done a good job making adjustments in game and closing well in the second half.
But this is a very different type of defense, and sometimes it may look like ‘oh, they don’t have any answers. They can’t stop Treylon Burks.’ The start at LSU was the same way, so you’re riding that momentum wave because things look different.
I think you look at the way this team is playing, with it being year one, as they are learning about things, they’re going to be riding the wave a little bit. I think fans will get more used to it as time goes on. However, I think the schedule combined with the fact that we are still learning how this team wants to run what they want to run will cause moments where the fans are like ‘oh, this is realy unexpected,’ but you can’t judge this team and make the same assumptions that you did in the Malzahn era… and I think it’s hard to break those habits.
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