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How Auburn will prepare for Stetson Bennett or JT Daniels

Stephen Samraby:Steve Samra10/06/21

SamraSource

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Entering an all-important against No. 2 Georgia, Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin is strategizing without knowing who will be at quarterback for the Bulldogs. In his press conference earlier this week, Harsin spoke about how Auburn will prepare for Stetson Bennet or J.T. Daniels.

“When you have a gameplan, you understand there’s different players and it’s not just the quarterback,” stated Harsin. “Look at when they put different tight ends in the game. When they put different tailbacks in the game. There’s things from a defensive standpoint you need to be ready for, when they’re utilizing different personnel. Quarterback is one of them as well.”

Evidently, Harsin is treating the Georgia quarterbacks like any other position. He’s already outlined their gameplan, regardless of who the opposing signal-caller is.

Moreover, Harsin elaborated on what the most important things are for the Auburn Tigers.

“You’re going to have a structure, you’re going to have a gameplan going into it and there’s going to be tweaks and adjustments that you make from it. The most important thing is that we play sound, physical defense and we have our guys in the right position,” said Harsin. “That we communicate, and that we do a good job in tackling and take advantage of our opportunities when we can with some one-on-one matchups, and find ways to win those.”

When Georgia comes to Jordan-Hare, it’s obvious Harsin is more concerned with his own team’s ability. He knows that if Auburn doesn’t perfect the basics, they’ll get beat no matter who the opposing quarterback is.

Last week, Harsin’s Auburn squad won their biggest game of the season — leaving Death Valley after delivering a death-blow to LSU’s season. Now, they’ll look to one-up that victory by knocking Georgia off, sending the college football world into chaos.

Harsin: ‘You look at him (Bo Nix) and the guy can make plays and he did’

Following Auburn’s victory over LSU, quarterback Bo Nix climbed back into the limelight. The quarterback showed his resolve, bouncing-back from a benching to lead the Tigers to victory.

In the game, Nix showed off his ability to extend plays and create with his feet. He might have to do more of that in Week 6 when Auburn hosts one of the best defensive teams in college football in Georgia.

Bryan Harsin said that Nix’s ability to use his feet is a nice luxury, but ideally the team can protect him a little bit better while maintaining the dangerous threat he poses on the ground.

“So, moving forward there were some good things from that standpoint,” Harsin said. “But you look at him and the guy can make plays and he did. But that’s not how you want to draw everything up but there is that ability. So, you continue to work those things, they happen in practice. And then hopefully we can capitalize on some of those plays in games. We want to put the plan together where he can go out there and just operate, play quarterback. Then when things do break down, be able to go make some really good decisions and some plays if that’s possible.”

Auburn and Georgia kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.