Bryan Harsin updates how training habits are paying off for defensive back group

Bryan Harsin would like to see a step up from his defensive backs in 2022. And they’ll need to if Auburn hopes to have any chance at making the SEC Media’s last place prediction look silly. So far in camp, though, the Tigers head coach is pleased with what he’s seeing from the back end of his defense.

Following Auburn’s first scrimmage of the season, Harsin held a press conference to review the game and the first few weeks of practice. As part of his comments, he praised the development of the secondary at length. Even singling out a few players in particular who have impressed thus far in the fall.

You can watch his comments right here or read them in full below.

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Bryan Harsin on Auburn secondary

“Yeah I like what they’re doing. We can move now. That’s one thing, I think. We can get from point A to point B very quickly. The communication in the back end has been good. I like what the coaches are doing with those guys.”

Harsin then named a couple guys who stood out.

“I think Donovan Kaufman has really emerged as a guy that’s communicating well back there. So you got Donovan Kaufman, you got Nehemiah Pritchett, those guys. They played a little bit, I think they’re all communicating well. You got a guy like Cayden Bridges now that’s coming on. And he’s very talented. Still young but he’s learning. But that guy is going to be a player for us once he gets everything figured out. So we feel good about him.

“Marquis Gilbert, you know, there’s another guy that can play back there. And I think tonight I want to see what it looked like with him. I saw a couple live pops that he was in on. I think he did a good job on it, so I wanna see how he’s tackling and how he’s paying physically, just downhill.So those are a few guys in the back end that I think are doing a really good job.

“But I like the way they’re training, that’s what I’d say. I think, in practice, how they’re training, what they’re doing, the drills they’re doing, how they’re communicating some of the stuff we’re trying to get done schematically has helped those guys. And it’s good to see you know kind of a progression from that back end.”

Lastly, Harsin closed his comments by recapping parts of the scrimmage.

“They did a good job tonight. They got the offense in some third downs. I thought they covered well on scrambles. They were on their guys. There was a couple tipped balls we didn’t get, but we should get them. And they have in practice. So I think that will come.”