Auburn's Tuberville Talks About Tangling With The Tigers

Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville addressed the media on Tuesday and talked about Saturday's Top 10 showdown with SEC Western Division rival LSU. The Tigers head into the contest 3 1/2 point favorites. The past two games have been decided by a total of four points. Here are some of Tuberville's comments on Saturday's match-up, courtesy of the Auburn Athletic Department...

Opening Statement...
"We started preparation today for our second conference game. They are all big ones. We know the size of this game. They are always great football games and we look forward to the challenge. After last week's game, we've made some improvements from the first week and we are still not as good as we possibly can be, but we are working toward being a better team this week.

"We had a great practice today. Everybody was out there. Injury-wise, we are in pretty good shape. We have some guys who are beat up a little bit, but by the time we get to Saturday, we should be fine. Steve Gandy practiced today in full pads; will he play this week? Probably not. We just wanted to get him out there going full speed since he is probably not in good playing shape as we speak.

"Going into this game, LSU, it's always a fun week. It's a fun game. The players enjoy it and the coaches enjoy it. It's always hard fought and well played, and it usually has some significance as to who possibly would have the opportunity to go to Atlanta from the Western Division. Both of us still have a lot of games to play, but we are looking forward to the challenge. It will be a big challenge. LSU has a good football team. They have had two blowout victories the first two weeks. They looked awfully good. They have a lot of continuity back on offense with their quarterbacks and a good running game. They have a lot of continuity back on their defense. They have improved last year's defense; it will be a challenge for us.

"The challenge of playing a top 10 team, a major opponent or a big rival game, is you go in and obviously both teams are going to be physical. The biggest thing I work on as the head coach is to make sure we are mentally ready to play. There are always some new things you might do, but when it comes down to it, it's usually execution by the players and how they play and how consistent they are. This week we will work on a lot of things that we have been working on already, but continuing to work on our mental attitude approaching this game. I think that will be very important.

"Today was a good practice. We sat there for about two hours, 15 minutes. We have a good game plan in. There is going to be a lot of talk about Coach (Will) Muschamp versus Coach (Jimbo) Fisher; two buddies who have coached with each other and are now coaching against each other. Will that make a difference? I think it will be just another storyline for this game. The players will be the ones who decide the outcome of this game, but it's good to know that our coach knows a little bit about what they do and how they've done it and has some familiarities with their offense. When it is all said and done, it will be a game plan that they'll put in and one that we'll put in and we'll see what happens."

On kicker John Vaughn...
"He has a lot of confidence. He has worked very hard at becoming a better player. You saw the problems he had last year and the year before that. He has been a good kicker, but when it comes to being a great kicker, you have to have the consistency that goes along with either making short ones or long ones. When things count you have to get it between the uprights, and he will be the first to tell you that he has not had that consistency. This year he has. We have a lot of confidence in him. Last week, the reason I was going to take him out was because we had decided before the game, going in that direction against the wind, 50 yards was probably going to be his limit. After I saw the one fall short after the delay of game penalty, we called up Matt Clark. He informed me, he said, `Coach, I just didn't hit it good. I caught it fat, caught a little bit of the ground.' He said, `I can make this one.' You have to go by how your kicker feels. He felt like he could make it and did a good job. That even shows us that he has confidence in himself, not just what we have in him. It's good to see a young guy grow up and have the success that he has had these first few games. We are going to call on him a lot, not just this game, but in future games. It is good to know right now he has the confidence that he can make it, not just the short ones, but the long ones."

On Auburn's success against top 10 opponents...
"As I said earlier, the biggest thing that we do is we don't practice any different. We don't put any more hours into the game plan. We work a little bit more mentally on our players about how to play the game. For instance, this game could come down to someone jumping offsides or one mental mistake by a linebacker or a mental mistake by a back. It just comes that close. Two years ago, we beat them here 10-9 and they had a mental mistake on a guy trying to block an extra point. Is it going to make a difference? You don't know. But as coaches, to me, that is how you coach a big game. I learned that from some guys that I coached with in the past, Jimmy Johnson being one of those, that you mentally have to prepare your team to play a game like this. They are going to play, the effort and the physical abilities are going to be there. You have to make sure that they play within their limits and handle each play mentally as well as what they do with their legs, arms and feet. There is a lot of thinking that goes on in these games. We want them to be prepared in that way, not just from the standpoint of blocking and tackling."

On practices...
"We had a good practice Sunday. This is the first week, really, that you are in a regular game week routine. Last week, we practiced during Labor Day. This week is the first week that we practiced Sunday and have Monday off. You come back and it's kind of interesting to see how Tuesday goes because they have had some time off. Again, they have a lot to absorb in a short period of time. These games roll around very quickly. We don't make a lot of changes. We run our offense, we run our defense and the same thing with our kicking game. You lean on some things that you might want to change or tweak here and there that they have to pick up in a short period of time. Today was a good practice. Again, it takes more than one good day. You have to go all week long, and then you have to lean on your leaders after early morning Thursday practice to make sure everyone stays focused for the next 48 hours."

On added pressure in a game with SEC Western Division Implications..."This game being played early, I kind of like it. I think it is good for both teams. Both teams had it in the middle of their schedules this time last year. We looked at our schedules, theirs as well as ours. It is going to be awfully tough as it is now. If you had thrown this game in the middle of them, it would have been very, very difficult for the players because of having a lot of physical games in a row. I think it is good. I think it is good for our conference to have a game his early. There is another one after our game that is going to have a lot of ramifications to what they are doing in the East side of the conference. It's a big day for the SEC. Is it going to determine a lot? Probably not. LSU and ourselves have a very difficult schedule for the next two months. This will just get this one out of the way. One will be chasing the other for the rest of the year is what it is going to be doing. Again, I think that whoever wins, even whoever loses, has an excellent opportunity the way the schedules are set to still be in this thing. You can't put all of your eggs in one basket. LSU can't, nor can we. You just have to go play the best you can and after this game you try to continue to improve, whether you win it or you don't. You just keep trying to get better because you have some awfully important games as they come down the next few months."

On big games in the SEC...
"There are a lot of them during the year. If you look at these two games this week, there is just a very small percentage of all the good SEC games the rest of the year. There are going to be a lot of good games. I think people are looking pretty much at our conference to start playing against each other because they are kind of waiting to see who really are the good teams. Right now, whether there are four in the top 10 or four in the top 11 or five in the top 15, that is twice as many, really, as anyone else. It is going to be hard for all of the teams in our league because of the schedules that we play. I think it is good for us nationally to throw our name in the hat - us, LSU, Florida and Tennessee. Just see where we are and see how things need to be adjusted. Again, this is just a small portion of what I think people are going to see all throughout the country in the SEC. There are some good teams. There are going to be a lot of football games."

On being caught up in things surrounding the game...
"You kind of program yourself to coach and go through the same week and get yourself in a routine. There are a lot of things that go through a game that you have to make decisions and you might want to change. Some games you coach differently than others, but you don't know that until you get into the game. They don't know how strong or weak we are, and we don't know how strong or weak they are. You have to get in a kind of size yourself up, especially early in the season. There are a lot of guys playing right now who probably will get beat up on down the line. Both teams are probably stronger right now physically than they will be in a month. There will be some guys turn ankles and you are not going to have the depth. Right now this should be a good ballgame because everyone is playing and pretty much close to full speed and get the best out of both teams."

On players stepping up in big games...
"Most of the time, your leaders step up in games like this, the guys that you can count on not just in this game, but in any game. Usually, if it is a close game, your standout players usually tend to show up a little bit better, sometimes more, but there is also sometimes, in games, that guys come to the top when you don't think they are ready for it. But guys do. That's the reason college football is fun. It's something different every week and it's a different challenge and this is a big challenge for us this week as it is for LSU. Next week it will be the same thing."

On Kenny Irons...
"He was good, he went full speed, I don't know how that stuff gets going, but he went full speed and practiced every snap. He is ready to go and he's beat up. Heck, he's a running back and in this league, you're going to get beat up. Washington State was a tough game on him and we turn around and play a very physical defense in Mississippi State. He will recover from Sunday to Wednesday and after Wednesday, he will be back to 100 percent. Then he will go again the next week. It's no different than any other running back in the country."

On Brad Lester...
"Brad is kind of a guy that you put in certain situations where you feel like Kenny kind of needs a breather. Kenny is one of those types of guys who come along very seldom in the terms of he doesn't lose his stamina, he can go forever. He is like the cyclist Lance Armstrong; he never got tired. Kenny is like that. Carlos Rogers was like that on defense; we could play him on every special teams and put him out there and play defense. We could've put him at receiver and he still wouldn't have gotten tired. Well, Kenny has got that same mentality and body functions. We kind of look at Kenny in the game and see how many licks he has taken and how things are going. It's also good to get a guy out there that is a little bit quicker-twitch, so to speak, that kind of picks the tempo up. Kind of like throwing a curveball after throwing a few fastballs, so it's a good change of pace."