AUBURN, Ala. – The message in the locker room after Saturday's Georgia game was simple. Keep fighting. There is still plenty of football to be played with eight SEC games remaining, and for Auburn, it's already on to the next one.
"It's one game at a time," safety Jamien Sherwood said. "We just played that game, so it's on to the next. Arkansas, they've been looking like a pretty good team these past two games. We're going to get ready for them, and we're going to play Auburn football. We're going to play to the standard on Saturday. It's just next game."
This isn't the first time Auburn has faced adversity early in the season. In 2013, the Tigers lost to LSU in the first month of the season. In 2017, they dropped a home game to Clemson in week two. But both of those teams responded. The 2013 team won the next nine games in a row, won the SEC and played for a national championship. The 2017 team won nine of their next 10 games to secure the SEC West and play for a conference title.
This year's Auburn team is facing the same type of adversity. How will they respond?
"It's so hard to improve each week," head coach Gus Malzahn said. "You look at college football every year – some teams are playing their best at the first, and they fade off. But the teams that are there and in it at the end are the ones that gradually get better. We're capable of doing that.
"Now we've got to do it. But that's our plan. Our guys are committed to it. Our coaches are too. We need to be one of those teams that steadily improves throughout the year."
The first step comes this Saturday when the Tigers return home to play an Arkansas team who is riding high with confidence after taking down Mississippi State this past weekend.
'Playing like Tank'With Shaun Shivers out for Saturday's game and D.J. Williams limited, Auburn turned to Tank Bigsby at running back. The true freshman delivered in a major way with 31 yards rushing and 68 yards receiving on seven catches, earning high praise from his teammates.
"That guy is a fighter," Auburn quarterback Bo Nix said. "I've never really seen anything like it. He just competed his butt off. He was a spark there when we needed one. He made some huge plays over and over and over. He's the one who kind of kept us rolling. Really pleased with what we saw out of him. Now we just have to get everybody playing like Tank."
On Sunday, Bigsby was awarded Auburn's helmet sticker for the offense.
"Being a true freshman, I really thought he competed extremely well," Malzahn said. JJ Cat
From Cam Newton to Kerryon Johnson to Chandler Cox, Auburn has had a variety of players serve in the Wildcat role over the years. None, though, like J.J. Pegues.
In the third quarter on Saturday, the Tigers faced a 4th-and-1 in Georgia's territory. The coaches called on Pegues. The 6-foot-2, 300-pound Pegues took the direct snap and powered his way for two yards, picking up the first down. Three plays later, on 3rd-and-1, Pegues picked up two more yards and another first down.
The freshman also caught a four-yard pass in Saturday's game and earned the special teams helmet sticker for his effort on kickoff and kickoff return.
"He's a great young talent," Nix said. "A really good player, really athletic, really big, strong, physical guy. He can do it all. He runs down on kickoff. He protects for kickoff return. The guy can do it all, and he's a good weapon for us."