Oct. 7, 2016
By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
They piped in really loud, distracting music at practice this week. That's what happens when Auburn's offense gets ready to play at Mississippi State.
Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said Auburn did it, as it is wont to do anyway, to let the Tigers "hear the cowbell before we get to the cowbell."
The time for the cowbell has arrived. Auburn plays Mississippi State in Davis Wade Stadium at 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN, and is doing so after opening the season with five straight home games.
Auburn will alternate between road and home games the rest of the way.
"Just a new environment, got to get used to it," said cornerback Josh Holsey. "It's going to be really hectic, an SEC game on the road. The young guys probably it will be a new experience for those guys. For the most part, us older guys know what it takes to play an away game."
Even Auburn's young guys have experience, but 86.3 percent of the offense becomes from freshmen and sophomores. Some played on the road last year. Some did not.
Auburn will try not to listen. The Tigers' offense will go with a silent snap count, and will hope Sean White bonds with center Xavier Dampeer, who will be making his first road start. The running backs and receivers who will look to White for their cues, too.
The Auburn defense figures it can play its game, the one that helped the Tigers beat LSU 18-13 and Louisiana-Monroe 58-7 the last two weeks.
"With defense," Holsey said, "away games are probably better cause we don't get any noise. They tend to be quieter for the offense, so we don't get any noise on the defensive side of the ball. It's pretty easy for us - we are able to communicate, make checks and all that with no problem."
Cowbells? "I don't know how much different is if you are in a place with 100,000 going crazy. Loud is loud," Lashlee said. "They do have a tendency sometimes to just the constant ringing, kind of like a dripping faucet. If you let your mind go there it can affect you. Most of the time guys, especially quarterbacks get on the field and you are playing, it's like that tunnel vision. Maybe when you are trying to call the play or call protection to the line it gets loud and you feel it then, but once the play snaps, you kind of block all that noise out. That's what our whole squad is going to have to do."
Auburn is 3-2. Mississippi State is 2-2 and, by having an open date last week, has had two weeks to prepare for the Tigers.
Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has seen it all before in various stops around the SEC, in the various times he's faced Dan Mullen's offense, whether at Mississippi State or Florida. This particular challenge: Slow quarterback Nick Fitzgerald.
"There are many years of Coach Mullen's offense in the Rolodex," Steele said motioning to his head, "with different quarterbacks all the way back to 2008 with Tim Tebow. And it's evolved and come back. To me, it probably resembles more of what they did at Florida in that era than any time at Mississippi State. That's just an opinion.
"He's an effective runner. He's going to carry the ball often. They're comfortable with that type of offense. They understand it and they know how to attack you with it."
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine