What Bryan Harsin said following Auburn football's Saturday practice

Harsin had a lot of praise for one quarterback in particular.

T-minus two weeks until kickoff. Are the Tigers ready?

Well, almost, according to head coach Bryan Harsin. Auburn finished their 14th practice of fall camp on Saturday morning, the goal of which being to fine tune and correct things that happened during the second scrimmage on Friday night. We're getting closer and closer to the announcement of Auburn's starting quarterback for the season opener vs the Mercer Bears. 

Unfortunately, it does not seem like we will be hearing any answers until later on this week

Here is what Harsin had to say about the quarterback competition, as well as other things he has seen out of the practices and scrimmages.

On the what he has seen out of the quarterback battle:

Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

"Yeah it was good. I thought we started slow. It wasn't our quarterbacks, I just think we started slow. That’s also a credit our defense as well, it's not just one side wasn't executing I thought our defense did a good job in those redzone situations. So that’s how we started yesterday. But overall like we were looking for from the quarterbacks is operation. you know that’s the biggest thing. though I know everybody wants to see these guys go out there and just make plays, but you have to get the call from the sideline, you've got to communicate, you've got operate, and that’s the most important thing right now."

"And they did that, so they did a good job with that, then they made plays. So probably that third series, fourth series, it started to pick, up tempo picked up, execution picked up, and I thought TJ did some really good things in the scrimmage as far as managing the clock and the situations and making sure that we didn't have to call timeouts. So he has a really good awareness on the field. I thought Robby (Ashford) made some plays just standing in the pocket and throwing, made some plays with his feet getting out and scrambling and making a few throws. Zach did a nice job as well, he moved the chains and scored touchdowns."

"Those three guys mainly, they all did some positive things that we needed to see out from them. Overall, I thought it was solid."

On whether or not he will know who the starting quarterback is by Tuesday:

Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

"I don't know, too early to tell right now. I mean I’ll get with the coaches. We’re gonna take today and the coaches are going to handle what they need to, and do some things personally so they can be ready to go on Sunday, and then what we'll do after our team activity on Sunday is we will start going through 'all right, where are we at,' all right, so potentially by Tuesday we could be there, and I want to see what what everybody thinks. one thing about a quarterback situation is it so just the QBs, I mean we're looking at other positions as well."

"I'm not saying by Tuesday we'll have the final decision. That final decision will come towards the end of next week. For sure going into that last week, game week."

On areas where he would like to see the team improve before the season opener vs Mercer:

Alex Keller/Auburn Athletics

"Yeah, number one is awareness. That would be number one. Just overall as a team. Running on the field and getting the signal. We can have all these systems in place, and I know our coaches do, I know our coordinators do, I sit in there and I listen to them and I watch how they install the things that we need to put in. And the system is exactly what it should be. But you’re dealing with people."

"So, simple things like, if you run onto the field, you should look to the side line to get the call. It’s an awareness thing. It’s a fourth and two, you play that differently than second and five. So, as a player you have to look over there and see see it’s fourth and two. You’re going to get different play calls. You should expect certain calls in those situations. Even just in the meetings. Walking into a meeting - I think you all know you walk into a meeting, you can kind of tell like 'all right, OK, we’re going to be locked in today.' You can walk into a meeting and it’s a little bit more loose at times." 

"Some of that awareness I think is really important for us just as people to be successful, it's something we need to work on."

"It's a game of situations. Three hours and twenty-four minutes, that's the average length of a college football game. You have to be ready for that. You gotta be able to focus and know what the heck is going on... it's going to be a lot different on September 3rd. It doesn't get any easier when the fans and everybody is out there and that environment is crazy. Practice is more controlled - if you have a hard time in practice, you aren't just going to rise to the occasion on gameday."

On Donovan Kaufman and the secondary

Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

"Donovan is a really intelligent football player. He’s able to get guys lined up and he understands the situation, he understands what we’re trying to accomplish. So I think that helps. He’s also a really good special-teams player, so we’re trying to figure out where to put him without overloading him and getting him on too many." 

"And I think he and Keionte Scott, I’ve mentioned him several times, this guy is really, really good. So both those guys are moving around. I think they are kind of working off of each other and then I think that’s raised the level for Nehemiah (Pritchett). Simp (Jaylin Simpson), his level has raised, and for Simpson, the sky is the limit for him. He’s a guy that’s got tremendous physical talent, tools, and he can really help us." 

"So I think that whole back end is really really been pushed by Donovan as well. Just to be better. And I kind of catch up a little bit to the FPI part of it. The football intelligence piece that we need to be at in the backend to get the stuff done that we need to get done."

On where he has seen growth in TJ Finley since last season:

Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

"Maturity. I’ll say this – TJ has got a coaches mentality. He sees things out there and that’s just – not everybody conceptually picks things up very quickly. It takes a little bit of time and he’s got that mentality. Some guys have it. Some guys take some time and others, you know you'll figure it out. But we all know we’re all good at something, and sometimes guys are really good at football and it just kind of just clicks and they see it."

“A couple of examples in the scrimmage – he sees that we get to play in late. The clock is winding down. It’s going to be a timeout situation. Well he’s getting everybody to the line and getting the snap count to what it needs to be so we can get the play off and then execute the play. So it’s not a panic, he’s just doing it with urgency. And he gets everybody to the line and then bang we convert a third down and nine.“

"Those are things to me that the does a really good job of... he studies, he prepares, he knows what to do, little things like when the drill is screwed up. Like flip the cones. Those are little things not everybody does."

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