AUBURN, Ala. - Climbing in the polls to No. 7 after a top 10 season-opening neutral site win, Auburn plays its first home game Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT against Alabama State.
"Really our message is real simple: improve from game one," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "Usually the better teams, they find a way to improve from game one to game two more than any other time in the season. We're excited about the home opener, being here at home in front of our fans. Our players and coaches can't wait for that."
Here are highlights from Malzahn's Tuesday session with reporters.
Win over Washington
"Obviously, it was a big win for us Saturday. I really liked the way that we won the game. In the fourth quarter, offense made plays to help us win and the defense made plays to help us win. A lot of times it's how you win that can help you later in the season, so I thought that was really good.
"Second thing, it gave us some great information. Any time you play a quality opponent you find out where you're at, you find out your strengths, you find out what you need to improve on and I think that was really good information to have that chance to find out our first game, when some programs may not find out until the second half of the season.
"What really stood out to me is we've got to run the football better. I give Washington credit -- great run defense -- but we need to improve in that area. We gave up a few deep passes, they made some outstanding plays with that. Really the main thing with me is the penalties; the penalties we had are completely unacceptable. We take great pride in not beating ourselves and so we are going to focus on that and that will be corrected moving forward."
Special Teams
"Other than the penalties, I think it was pretty clean. We covered kicks better and Carlson kicking out of the end zone was huge, and we covered punts better which was the focus. The field goal protection was also the focus. We had the returns, and it was unfortunate we had the two penalties on the big one; that's a game changer. We had the ball inside the 15-yard line and having the chance to go up big in a game like that is unacceptable."
Freshmen Debut
"We had some guys that touched the ball for the first time. That was a stressful deal, just from my standpoint, against a really good opponent. You know that game goes down to the end like we talked about and one play can make a difference. The thing that stood out to me about the young guys is how they protected the football. Then the other guys that were in there did what we asked. It's a very talented group of freshmen and I think that you will see that number grow. I think you will see a lot of their playing time grow more and more as the season goes on as they keep progressing."
SEC vs. SWAC
"We don't take anything for granted. The good teams that have a chance to win a championship don't. This week is about us getting better. Last week is behind us and we have to figure out a way to get better. There's all kinds of areas that we should improve on and need to improve on, and that's the way we are approaching this game."
Roster Report
"John Broussard has left the team to pursue other things. We wish him nothing but the best. Eli Stove and Will Hastings both have been cleared to practice. As far as full practice, we'll see where that goes with how confident they are and we are as far as when that happens to return. I think that's a positive that they've been cleared to practice fully.
"We knew their progress was ahead of schedule. They have worked extremely hard to get to that point. They've done 7 on 7s, and they've done some things like that already at full speed, so now it's just taking that next step to be cleared to fully participate in practice. We will see where that goes, but until they and I are 100 percent for sure, they won't be on the field. We will see when that is, and I will keep you updated. There is a really good chance that both of them will be back this year."
"Joey Gatewood is still going to be a couple weeks before he gets back with that thumb. Javaris Davis will be back out there practicing today, so, overall I think that first game we came out of it pretty well as far as injuries. It was a very physical game; there were a lot of guys that were sore the next day, but that's part of playing a quality opponent. It was a good way to start the season -- with a win. The challenge now, that's behind us. That's one game and we've got to figure out a way to improve each week. We've got the meat of our schedule coming up, starting out with this first home game."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer