Captains keep up positivity for Tigers

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Captains keep up positivity for Tigers

By Giana Han

4-5 minutes

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Big Kat Bryant (1), Shaun Shivers (8), Bo Nix (10) and K.J. Britt (33) were voted captains for the season Saturday by their team mates. AU FB night practice on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020 in Auburn, Ala. Todd Van Emst/AU AthleticsTodd Van Emst/AU Athletics

Between a coaching change, bowl prep and the holidays, the best way to describe the last few weeks for Auburn is a “whirlwind.”

“We went into two weeks to where we had a lot of things going on, a lot of changes,” quarterback Bo Nix.

And — as a captain — both he and defensive end Big Kat Bryant have felt the need to be steadying presences for their teammates while everything else around them has spun and whirled.

Since the moment the team had its spring practice cancelled due to COVID-19, this season has been different. The Tigers suffered an outbreak during fall camp and one mid-season, forcing a game to be postponed.

“It’s been stressful,” Bryant said. “We had to stop and go, a lot of emotions up and down.”

No player had ever experienced anything like it, but Bryant said it was especially challenging for the freshmen. They didn’t even have one “normal” college game under their belts before they played 10 SEC games in a pandemic.

Then, moments after their coach Gus Malzahn finished dancing with them in the locker room after beating Mississippi State, things started to change even more. Malzahn strayed from the normal schedule and released his team from practice to give them a break after what running back Tank Bigsby called the hardest season of his life. Hours later, to end the season on an even more complicated note, Malzahn was fired.

Since Malzahn had been there for eight seasons, none of the players had ever been through a head coaching change while at Auburn.

“So we (were) just trying to figure out,” Bryant said.

Then, three days before Christmas, a new coach was hired. Bryan Harsin, formerly Boise State’s head coach, had his introductory press conference on Christmas Eve and then met with the players Saturday. With the bowl coming up, Harsin has been staying back and observing to allow the team to continue preparing as it was before.

Through all the changes, the main focus for the team leaders was to keep the team positive, both Nix and Bryant said. They wanted their teammates to stay confident and motivated. Nix said he tried to help them trust that whatever happened was going to be the best for them.

They’ve had their challenges keeping spirits up. The Tigers have had players opt out, catch COVID-19 and suffer injuries. Bryant said it’s been real hard keeping the team “in tune and motivated” because they’ve never been through anything quite like this 2020 season.

“So as a leader on this team, I just continue to motivate them and show them there’s a bigger picture,” Bryant said.

The coaches helped, as well. They, too, are all going through uncertainty — will Harsin retain any of them or bring in all new assistant coaches? — but they’re keeping themselves and their players focused on the bowl game. Nix said they’ve emphasized how big of a deal the Citrus Bowl is, both as an end to this season and a step in the right direction for next season.

Practices have been good so far. They’re taking a little bit of a different approach, and they’ve been more relaxed. The break Malzahn gave them before he was fired made a difference in helping them deal with stress, and Nix doesn’t feel it put them back at all. He said they’ve seemed “very crisp” as they run drills.

This bowl experience may not be like any other, but they’ve been through the routine of a game week 10 times this season. The way the Tigers are approaching it, this is just game week 11.

“Regardless what happens next it’s important because this is the next thing that we definitely have and this is the next thing that we can look forward to,” Nix said. “So Friday will be important and everybody kind of knows the importance of it.”