toughness' in face of pressure critical for Bo Nix

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Harsin: 'Mental toughness' in face of pressure critical for Bo Nix

ByNathan King

5-6 minutes

AUBURN, Ala. — Bo Nix has shown his new coaching staff the talent, arm strength and athleticism that made him a five-star prospect and allowed him to win Auburn's starting quarterback job as a true freshman.

Those traits are not in question for Nix as he learns his third offense under his third offensive coordinator in as many years — a process that is now three weeks complete with one week to go until spring practice is wrapped up on the Plains with the A-Day spring game. So as the "base" of Bryan Harsin and coordinator Mike Bobo's offense starts to become more comfortable and second nature for Nix — "the fundamentals are there," the head coach said — Harsin is looking to see other areas of his quarterback's game improve in more football-realistic settings.

One area in particular that Harsin is harping on, which has been a struggle for Nix at times through his first two seasons as a Tiger, is decision-making in the face of pressure. 

An untimely scramble or an errant throw into coverage have kept Nix from being a consistent passer at Auburn, and have balanced out some of his more impressive passes and feats of athleticism. As Harsin put it, not every play will be pass-blocked perfectly, not every receiver will run wide-open, not every read will be available on the first look. And the best quarterbacks Harsin has coached — there's a significant list of good ones — have been able to diagnose a broken-down situation and make a smart decision.

"Defense is going to get you; they're going to get you sometimes," Harsin said. "They're going to have the right call; they're going to cut somebody loose. There's going to be something that the defense does that you as a quarterback, now, what is your plan? What is your immediate reaction? What are you going to do? And sometimes, you throw it away. And that's probably one of the hardest things. I tell the quarterbacks, sometimes there are a lot of those 'boo' plays. Nobody knows the reason why, right? Everybody just starts booing and all that. But it was probably the right decision.

"Everybody was covered. The guy was coming. You don't want to take a sack in that situation. You throw it away. That's where, at that position, where the maturity and toughness have to come in. You have to be a tough dude, now. You've got to have that mental toughness. You have to have thick skin. There might be two bad play calls and both of them were throwaways. But that's the right thing."

Don't just look at Harsin's pedigree on quarterback development, though. Turn on an NFL game on Sundays, Harsin said, and the quarterbacks at the highest level of the game don't mind tossing a ball out of bounds every once in a while.

"When Aaron Rodgers throws the ball away, everybody's like — it doesn't matter if it was good or not — good decision," Harsin said. "Because everybody knows that Aaron Rodgers knows what he's doing. We've given Aaron Rodgers all the credit that says, hey, whatever he does, he knows what he's doing. Tom Brady. He throws it away, he knows what he's doing. Those guys have earned that."

Of course, Nix is not Tom Brady, and it's a more difficult for a college QB who always wants to make big plays for his offense and doesn't have nearly two decades of NFL experience.

"I think for younger quarterbacks, you have to have a lot of maturity and a lot of toughness — a lot of mental toughness to make that decision," Harsin said. "And I'm not talking about throwing the ball well or on time, but making good decisions — pulling it down to run, getting us in the right play. Just doing what's required of you on that play.

“Sometimes, when you're behind or when you're pressing, you want to push too far and try to do too much. All you've got to do is do your job at your position like everybody else. Execute your assignment."

What Harsin wants Nix to understand this spring and heading into the summer and fall camp within Auburn's new offense is that the big plays will come, especially for a player of Nix's talent level. And it's the coaches' job to set Nix and the offense up for success, too.

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But those moments won't materialize if the Tigers don't have the ball because of a hasty decision on an imperfect play.

10COMMENTS

"We want every drive to end in a kick," Harsin said. "We want drives where we keep the ball in our hand."

Auburn begins its fourth and final week of spring practice Monday afternoon. Saturday's A-Day game is set for 1 p.m. CST on SEC Network Alternate.

[aubiefifty 18,231]

well i guess we got an answer somewhat............