Cleaning up ‘little things’

[aubiefifty 17,487]

Auburn confident cleaning up ‘little things’ pays off big time for pass defense

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

5-7 minutes

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Auburn cornerback Roger McCreary (23) lines up against Penn State wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith (13) during an NCAA college football game in State College, Pa., on Saturday, Sept.18, 2021.Penn State defeated Auburn 28-20. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)AP

Donovan Kaufman knows Derek Mason better than any other player on Auburn’s defense.

Kaufman played under Mason last season at Vanderbilt, and although his freshman campaign was cut short, he understands how the Tigers’ first-year defensive coordinator approaches things when it comes time to make adjustments and corrections when things don’t go as planned. So, how is Mason responding after Auburn’s defense allowed Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford to complete 28-of-32 passes for 280 yards and a pair of touchdowns last week?

“Coach Mason is always the same guy,” Kaufman said. “I mean, he knows what has to be done. He’s been doing it for years. So, his response is, ‘We’ve just got to be better. Clean up technique. Little things, really.’”

Under Mason, Auburn’s secondary has switched primarily to an off-man zone coverage scheme, which is a considerably different approach than the press-man philosophy employed under former defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. Through three games, though, the Tigers’ pass defense has been a weak link for Mason’s unit.

Auburn’s opponents have completed 78.7 percent of their passes, which is the highest percentage allowed among FBS teams this season. The Tigers are also 100th nationally and 13th in the SEC in defensive passing efficiency (144.08), though they’re 64th and 70th in passing yards allowed (207.7) and yards allowed per pass attempt (7.0).

“We’ve got to come up and challenge them,” Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. “That’s too high of a completion percentage that you want to see against the defense, so there’s things that we have to do as far as putting ourselves in zone coverage in better positions. We’ve got to create some pass rush and be able to make the quarterback have to move in the pocket, and so create some opportunities there. That’s an area that we know we can improve on and then lower that percentage as the season goes on from what the quarterbacks are able to do.”

When asked if the switch from press-man coverage under the previous staff to more zone schemes under Mason and defensive backs coach Zac Etheridge has resulted in any growing pains for the secondary, Harsin said he didn’t think that was the case, adding that Auburn has and will play man coverage at times this season.

“I don’t really know if it’s a growing pain,” Harsin said. “We’d be making the assumption that we’re allowing that and just kind of playing soft and making sure that we’re not trying to be aggressive…. You want to protect yourself from big-play opportunities at times, but we are trying to be aggressive throughout the gameplan. I don’t think we’re trying to just play soft and give up those throws. We haven’t executed the way that we could and should, so I think that’s what you asked as far as the growing pains. Those are things that we have to — we’ve got to make those plays. We got to put ourselves in the position to go in there and play a little tighter in coverage.”

Of course, it’s one thing to give up a high completion rate when the defense is keeping everything in front of it, as was the case in Auburn’s first two games against Akron and Alabama State. When the defense is giving up a high completion rate and explosive plays, as happened in the Penn State game, it creates a much larger issue. Penn State completed seven passes of 15-plus yards, including five of at least 20 yards, with receivers often wide open downfield.

Saturday’s game also marked the first time since 2015 against Georgia that Auburn’s defense did not record a pass breakup — ending a streak of 69 games.

“Even on the scrambles when a guy gets out of the pocket, we have to plaster and cover and stay in coverage a little bit longer and be able to make some plays on the ball,” Harsin said. “So, those are all things that are a work-in-progress every single week.”

As Auburn prepares to head into SEC play, with games remaining against quality passing teams like LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss and Alabama, finding a solution to its deficiencies in defending the pass is imperative.

According to Kaufman, Auburn’s issues with its passing defense aren’t as major as they may seem. It’s as simple as cleaning up some “minor things” as it pertains to technique when dropping in coverage and cleaning up its underneath coverage in zone concepts.

The redshirt freshman defensive back is confident that the players and coaching staff will “definitely get it fixed” sooner rather than later, and he believes the disappointing results in Happy Valley will prove to be a valuable learning experience for the defense as it adjusts to this new scheme. While a loss hurts regardless, it’s better to learn those lessons in nonconference action and have a chance to address them early on rather than in SEC play, where that kind of result can have a deeper impact on the team’s overall goals.

“We know what we have to fix, so it’s really not going to be as hard, but I do look forward to cleaning up those things,” Kaufman said. “It’s also early in the season so, you know, we have a lot of time left, so it will definitely get better.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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