aubiefifty 18,231 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Auburn players excited to play in Citrus Bowl By Giana Han 4 minutes Big Kat Bryant (1) reacts before the game between Auburn and Mississippi State at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Todd Van Emst/AU AthleticsTodd Van Emst/AU Athletics After Auburn accepted the invitation to the Citrus Bowl, interim coach Kevin Steele picked up the phone and started calling players. While he didn’t get the chance to talk to the entire team, Steele talked to most of the team’s leadership and came away with the impression that his players are excited to play in a bowl game despite all the challenges they’ve faced this season. “They’re extremely excited about it,” Steele said. “It gives them an opportunity to one more time fight for the Auburn Family and show what we are at Auburn as a football program.” Like every team across the nation, Auburn had to deal with the challenges of playing football in a pandemic. For the most part, they did a good job and only had one postponed game. They dealt with a fair share of injuries, but the biggest challenge came right as the season ended. Coach Gus Malzahn was fired the day after their final win, shocking many of the players. Since Auburn has not hired a new coach yet, it will be heading to the bowl game with an interim coach unless it makes a decision in the next 12 days. While Steele is stepping into the role for right now, he said that’s not really something he’s thinking about. “This is not about Kevin Steele, or anybody that sits in that chair,” Steele said. “This is about the players. And we’ve got leaders on this team, and we’ve got a coaching staff — an unbelievable coaching staff made up of competitive guys and winners that love Auburn.” The players themselves make it easy for anyone leading the team, he said, because they have good leadership, high character and a competitive spirit. They’ve been on a break since the Mississippi State game because Malzahn released them after the win to give them time to recover from the hard season. In that time, they’ve still put in work on their conditioning (“I certainly hope — they better have been working on it,” Steele said). Each player’s self-motivation will be important because the team will not get back together until Dec. 26, six days before the bowl game. The coaching staff thought it was very important for the players to be home with their families on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and working that in with testing and quarantine protocols meant there was no way for them to practice until the 26th, Steele said. That presents a challenge because Northwestern still has its team on campus. It also played Saturday when it faced Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game. Steele has not seen much of Northwestern since there was no crossover in opponents this season with all-conference schedules. He also doesn’t know head coach Pat Fitzgerald personally. But he knows enough to be sure the Wildcats will come prepared, so Auburn will have to as well. “But I know this: the Auburn Tigers will work hard and be as resilient and fight as hard as they’ve done all year and make the Auburn family very proud,” Steele said. “But we’re ecstatic about coming to Orlando.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Kat Bryant (1) reacts before the game between Auburn and Mississippi State at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Todd Van Emst/AU AthleticsTodd Van Emst/AU Athletics
Mikey 16,781 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 The Citrus is a fine bowl game. I'm excited too and looking forward to rooting for my AU Tigers one more time this football season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG 34,754 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Are they? I was told players don't care for bowl games and they don't really matter? Or was that only when we lose. The pressure is off, just have fun guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixtosanders94 2,180 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 6 minutes ago, DAG said: Are they? I was told players don't care for bowl games and they don't really matter? Or was that only when we lose. The pressure is off, just have fun guys. Birmingham Bowl and Music City Bowl = Matter All others = Don't matter Citrus Bowl? = To be determined by outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cole256 17,085 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Until we lose....then it will be the players didn't care Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autigeremt 7,205 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 2 minutes ago, cole256 said: Until we lose....then it will be the players didn't care Crazy how that works isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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