Bryan Harsin says Auburn Tigers 'have to go back to work'

Bryan Harsin and the Auburn Tigers fell victim to a second-half disaster on Saturday.

At first, the Tigers looked to be in the driver’s seat for the entire first half against Mississippi State. Auburn led 28-10 at halftime, and with home-field advantage, Harsin’s Tigers — who entered the game as the highest ranked three-loss team in the country — seemed destined to climb higher in the polls.

That ended up being far from the case, however. Harsin and Auburn struggled to make adjustments out of halftime, and Mississippi State pulled off the largest comeback win in program history — scoring 40 unanswered points to win 43-34 — while Auburn blew the largest lead resulting in a loss in program history.

As for what’s next — Harsin will travel to South Carolina, first, where Auburn will take on a bottom-dwelling South Carolina team, before the hardest test of the year: a home game against No. 2 Alabama in the Iron Bowl. For now, Harsin said Auburn must simply stay the course.

“It comes back to guys loving football. You’ve got to have a bunch of guys that love the game. And that’s going to be the challenge, because when you win, everything is good. But when you lose, things can be — you start to question yourself and the things that you’re doing,” Harsin said. “It’s the same message since back at fall camp or spring practice. Just what it takes to be successful and to win each and every week.

“The challenge is how do we get better? How do we improve? How do we find ways to finish ballgames? How do I do a better job of making sure that we’re ready to play four quarters of football?”

Harsin reflects on Auburn’s missed opportunities against Mississippi State

Harsin said that in Auburn’s loss Saturday, the Tigers never quite changed their offensive strategy — and despite the lack of adjustment, he believes the opportunities were still there.

“As far as the things that we had done early [on offense] — yeah, we felt like those things would work [in the second half],” Harsin said in Monday’s press conference. “They showed up on tape. If you go back and study the game, those things that we had called in the first half were there in the second half. We didn’t execute and make the plays in some of those situations.

As part of Mississippi State’s 40-point swing, Auburn’s offense stalled; Harsin’s unit was held to just six second-half points, and late in the game, quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury. He finished 27-of-41 for 377 yards and two touchdowns against Mississippi State.

“Defensively, with the pass rush, we had the best players on the field at that time to get after the quarterback. I thought their o-line did a good job,” Harsin said, complimenting Mississippi State. “There were some things we did to mix up some of the ways to get pressure on the quarterback. Not to take anything away from the QB — he played really well in the second half.”