Auburn staves off upset bid

[aubiefifty 18,248]

'We're not going to be one of those teams today:' Auburn staves off upset bid

Nathan King

5-6 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama — Owen Pappoe was well aware of what happened across college football Saturday.

Whatever was played up on Auburn’s massive jumbotron was, of course, difficult to miss during warmups. But Pappoe thought his peers needed a reminder.

On a day with two top-10 teams going down on their home field to Group of Five teams — and another, Nebraska, adding to an embarrassing start to the season — Auburn trailed 10-7 at halftime against San Jose State, which closed as a 24-point underdog.

Pappoe, a team captain, didn’t want his team to be the next in line to faceplant.

“'Let’s not fall into that category,'” Pappoe told his teammates at halftime. “'Let’s come out hot and do what we do.'”

With shades of Georgia State, Jacksonville State, Louisiana Monroe, Utah State and other close calls for Auburn in nonconference play over the past several seasons, the Tigers ultimately pulled it out for a one-score win over the Spartans on Saturday night, 24-16.

After Texas nearly set the tone but came up just short against Alabama, Appalachian State and Marshall carried the torch with massive upsets over No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 8 Notre Dame, respectively. Georgia Southern closed the night with a 45-42 win over Nebraska.

“College football is so unpredictable these days,” left guard Brandon Council said postgame. “You never know what happens. We’re going to take this one and move on to the next opponent.”

Texas A&M dolled out $1.5 million to App State. Nebraska will pay Georgia Southern $1.42 million. Notre Dame is out $1.25 million, and instead of an easy win, is now 0-2 to start the season.

Auburn owes San Jose State $1.85 million — but the Tigers didn’t let the Spartans take the money and run.

“I don’t take it for granted that we win,” Bryan Harsin said postgame. “Being involved from Sunday through Friday, you have all these expectations. … I never say ‘a win is a win’, but it’s hard to win. If you look at what happened today, I think that’s something everyone realizes, that it’s hard to win.”

Auburn repeatedly tripped over itself early in the game, with eight first-half penalties and one interception apiece by quarterbacks T.J. Finley and Robby Ashford. Those mistakes allowed San Jose State to hang around and grab the halftime lead with a touchdown drive with less than 1 minute remaining until the break.

In the locker room, Pappoe wasn’t the only one speaking up. Finley, Tank Bigsby, Derrick Hall and others all tried to give their teammates a kick — and in the process, referenced the big upsets Saturday.

“It just made us more hungry,” defensive lineman Marcus Harris said. “The testament of a good defense is what you're going to do when you're down. Everybody's happy when you're up, but what are you going to do when you're down? When adversity hits, how are you going to respond? I feel like that got everybody up.

“We're not going to be one of those teams today that's going to lose. We're not going to let our fans down.”

Auburn immediately marched down for a go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, helped largely by a bounce-back performance from Finley, who hit 12-of-15 throws following his first-quarter interception, and found the end zone in the fourth quarter with a QB run.

“The ending goal of us playing football is to win,” Finley said. “We got the dub. Obviously, we didn't win as bad as we wanted to — you know, with the score — but we're gonna go back into the film room and fix where we messed up. We'll be ready for next week.”

Last season, after nearly losing to Georgia State, Auburn turned around and beat LSU on the road for the first time since 1999 the following week. The Tigers have another big opponent — Penn State at home — next week. 

Harsin isn't necessarily concerned about the score of Saturday's sluggish win. The various shortcomings and errors on both sides of the ball, of course, will be a big focus. But the Tigers' second-year head coach was proud of his team's resolve on a day where a few other programs couldn't stave off comparable upset bids.

“Good football teams can take a punch in the face and still find a way to win,” Harsin said.