Kirby Smart goes in-depth on Auburn’s turnover issues, offensive strength

It’s been an up-and-down go for Auburn to start the 2024 season. The Tigers enter Week 6 with a 2-3 record after their lead disappeared against Oklahoma – and things won’t get easier with No. 5 Georgia on tap this week.

The quarterback position has been a key point of conversation around Auburn this year. Hugh Freeze benched Payton Thorne at one point for Hank Brown, but later went back to his Week 1 starter against Oklahoma. But the offense continues to struggle, thanks in large part to an SEC-leading 15 turnovers.

To Kirby Smart, Auburn’s offense doesn’t completely stall. In fact, the Tigers have the fourth-fewest third-down attempts in the SEC this year. He sees a unit that struggles with ball security – but when they hold onto the football, the Tigers are tough to stop.

“Look, people misunderstand. They think you’re just coach-speaking when you talk about Auburn,” Smart said Tuesday. “These guys, they’re not getting stopped. They’re turning the ball over. Look at the stats of what they’ve done offensively. Don’t look at the points and the scores. Just look at them go up and down the field. They’ve stopped themselves a lot of times. A lot of respect for the physicality they play with and how they play. Sometimes, it’s hard to control turnovers.”

One aspect of Freeze’s system is the amount of motion. That makes it even harder on opposing defenses, who have to make sure their eyes are in the right spots and not falling for the misdirection. Smart has seen that part of football evolve during his decorated coaching career, and he said Auburn is a great example of how to make it work.

He also pointed out last year’s game, which saw Georgia fight off an upset to get a victory on The Plains. Staying disciplined, Smart said, will be crucial.

“To be honest with you, you’ve got to have eye discipline every game,” Smart said. “There’s no team that doesn’t shift, motion, move, trade tight end, move this guy. It’s like football now. Football has become this crazy event of moving people pre-snap to try to gain an advantage. I don’t know where it evolved to. It used to be everybody standing still and hit each other. Now, they all move. The eye discipline is extremely important, but it’s extremely important every game.

“I think with Hugh, he does a great job of changing things up, giving you different pictures. They did a tremendous job in the game last year. We had a really good defense, and last year’s game has been very important to us in terms of the way he played us, what he did, things off of it. It’ll take great eye discipline to play well against them.”

Kirby Smart: Auburn has had ‘some unfortunate events’ on offense

When it comes to creating turnovers or figuring out why Auburn commits so many miscues, Kirby Smart said he didn’t have the answer. If he did, he noted he could retire and still be well off.

But unforced errors are a big reason why the Tigers have been so up-and-down to start the year. In fact, Smart argued some of the problems come down to, quite simply, luck.

“I wish I knew how to sprinkle some dust and get them and stop them,” Smart joked. “If I can figure that out, man, I’d be able to retire real soon because I could go around and give it to everybody. But nobody knows. They don’t carry the ball poorly, they don’t have poor ball security. They’ve had some unfortunate events and fumbles, and they had tips. Some of their interceptions are tips and overthrows.

“How do you control that? No. 1, you catch the ball. But it’s just hard to control that. Every year, somebody different wins the turnovers in the country. You just don’t want to be the team turning it over.”