'Focus on the next game': Auburn prepares for home opener

'Focus on the next game': Auburn prepares for home opener'Focus on the next game': Auburn prepares for home opener

AUBURN, Ala. – Huge win, late night, quick turnaround.

After defeating Oregon 27-21 Saturday in Texas, the Tigers arrived at the Plains at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, practicing briefly that afternoon to correct mistakes before a break from practice and class on Monday.

Now the focus turns to Tulane, Auburn's opponent in the home opener Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT.

"We've got to just bounce back," senior defensive lineman Derrick Brown said. "You've got to come in, you've got to get treatment, you've got to be able to play the next week as if you're 100 percent. You've got to be mentally and physically tough."

Brown made three tackles against the Ducks while consistently disrupting Oregon's offensive execution.

"That was a long game," he said. "They ran the ball a lot, and we were out there running around a lot."

Eli Stove caught his first career touchdown pass in the Oregon game, an achievement he hopes to duplicate Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

"Coach Burns told us that game's over with now," Stove said. "Switch to Tulane. That's what we'll be doing. They train us, after one game, just focus on the next game, so it's really just normal."

For the Tigers, it matters little that Tulane does not belong to a Power Five conference.

"They're a very good team," Brown said. "That's what you saw last weekend in college football, people taking different conference teams not so seriously. It came back to bite people. That's not how we want to approach it. As soon as you let your guard down, that's when teams make those plays on you that you can prevent."

After a month of preseason camp, the Tigers savored the opportunity to compete against a new opponent.

"It felt good to hit somebody else," Brown said. "Fall camp is a long stretch, just hitting the same people over and over again. It just felt good to get out there, be able to play against somebody else.

"Having a little adversity thrown at us, that was good, too. Being able to rely on each other and our team going through adversity early shows a lot of character. Hopefully, no matter what the situation is in the back end of the season, we'll continue to be able to just fight for one another."

Auburn moved up six spots in the Associate Press poll to No. 10, giving the Tigers an AP top 10 ranking during each of Gus Malzahn's seven seasons as head coach, the second longest such streak in program history (1983-90).

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer