Auburn TE John Samuel Shenker expresses disappointment in not finishing drives

It was a rough game for Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl this week. The Tigers only scored 13 points in their 17-13 loss to Houston.

After the game, Auburn tight end John Samuel Shenker discussed some missed opportunities in the game. He also pointed to some mental mistakes that proved costly.

“That was our issue most of the day,” Shenker said. “It’s pretty frustrating. We threw the ball pretty well until we get down there and we have [some] mental errors or we snap the ball on the wrong cadence and stuff like that. That’s just little things in the game that you just can’t afford to happen this late in the season.

“This late in the season, the little things should be the easy parts … but that’s part of the game sometimes. You’ve got to learn to adjust and push through … the defense played great, I thought. I thought the offense as a whole, we could’ve done a lot better. I thought we ran the ball well, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough.”

Auburn had a 13-10 lead with 4:47 left in the game. But a costly targeting call gave Houston new life, and the Cougars found the end zone to score the game-winning touchdown.

Bryan Harsin reflects on Auburn’s season, explains how ‘attitude’ change can help

Auburn’s season ended in a disappointing Birmingham Bowl that seemed like a reflection of Bryan Harsin’s entire first year at the helm: the Tigers at one point looked poised to finish on top, but they ultimately broke down when it mattered most, falling to 6-7 on the year.

Houston jumped out to a 10-3 lead at halftime, despite a valiant second-quarter effort from Derek Mason’s Auburn defense, and Harsin’s offense — set to receive to start the second half — did not look to be in a terrible place. Surely enough, a third-quarter field goal and touchdown later, and the Tigers had taken a 13-10 lead, now firmly in the driver’s seat against Houston. But the Cougars managed to string together a clinical eight-play, 80-yard drive in crunch time, scoring a touchdown and leaving Auburn just three minutes to respond, trailing 17-13.

Just like the Iron Bowl, however, they were unable to do that.

“I’m still not going to assess this season yet until you actually have the chance to go back and truly dive into what did you learn,” Harsin said after the heartbreaking bowl loss. “That’s what you do, you dive into what did you learn from the year, then you go back and evaluate every single thing. As far as our football program goes, I think there’s a lot of things that we learned this year that we know we have to be better at.”