Roundtable of Tigers Past – Talking Losses and Concerns

If I had never met Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) in person, I would think he always talks in short, incomplete sentences. But what can you expect from an offensive lineman, right? I’ve never met Kodi Burns (@AUKB18) in person, so I’ll just assume that he talks the same as he does when responding to my questions. If I had never met Jeris McIntyre in person, I would think he is the very excited all the time, and likes to take small pauses between each sentence. If you haven’t already, you’ll see what I mean.

1. What is the most important thing a team must do following the first loss of the season?

Cole: Learn from it…then forget it. Must move on.

Kodi: Just regroup and understand that the goal is still possible.

Jeris: Get that game against Clemson out of their system and be ready to play this game.

2. What was the most devastating loss of your Auburn career? How you did you and the team respond?

Cole: Iron Bowl 1999. Needed it to to get to six wins. Opened strong at home. Tough one. I like to think we responded by winning the West in 2000.

Kodi: Bama, sophomore year. It sucked for the Auburn fans to have to see that performance, but that whole season was ridiculous. We had the talent, just had so many internal problems.

Jeris: I think the most devastating loss of my career at Auburn was in 2003 when we lost to USC…. We were preseason ranked #1 in some polls and USC beat us bad. We didn’t respond too well as we traveled to Ga. Tech that next week and got beat again.

3. Besides the defense’s inability to tackle and get off the field on 3rd down, what is Auburn’s biggest concern for the rest of the season?

Cole: The schedule isn’t going to let up much after this week. Improvement must occur rapidly.

Kodi: That should be there only concern at this point.

Jeris: That’s really my only concern. We are in position to make the plays… we just need to tackle.

4. Does Auburn’s performance against Clemson give you a more negative outlook for this season?

Cole: It doesn’t help much. I’m not going to judge the season on three games.

Kodi: Not at all, the Auburn family must understand, losing as many seniors as we did is devastating to any team. If you think about it, we could very well be 0-3. We are fortunate to be basically 3-1 going into a big October. Will be many exciting games, but tough to win them all.

Jeris: No, my outlook is the same… we will have a chance to beat whoever we step on the field against, we just need to get better quickly.

5. What does Auburn have to do against FAU to show there was improvement made this week?

Cole: Slow the run. Make plays. Limit mistakes. Take care of business.

Kodi: You can polish up a few areas, but that competition compared to an SEC road game is like Domino’s to Papa John’s. Not even close.

Jeris: Tackle somebody and bring back the Auburn defense the way it was played in the past…. I know we are going to score alot but I want to see a dominating D!!!!!!!