“It’s a good day. I’m excited to sit here on a Monday after an SEC win. I thought our kids were doing a lot of really good things. I thought our team’s plan – offensive, defensive and special teams – was really solid after watching the film. We’ve had really good responses to the things they’ve tried to do. This was a team that had been very, very difficult to rush against in every game they played except the Florida game. I thought we did that better than most had, actually, in several years against them. They and Mark (Stoops) are doing a great job. I’m really proud of our children. The reality is that losing 10-0 on an interception could have increased. A lot of teams, after going through the disappointments that we experienced losing tough games this year, could have easily said “oh my God” and it could have gotten away from us. Our kids chose to fight and think that speaks to the character of this team and what we are trying to build here. I am very grateful and happy with a lot of things that happened in this match. I thought it was a dominant second half from start to finish. Except for this drive where we went up by two scores. I started thinking, “We were just stoning them on every possession, then all of a sudden we’re up two scores and is it the same team?” What do we do? And then, man, going down there and having the four-man stops inside the 2(-yard) line was so encouraging and exciting. I think there were six freshmen on the field for those four saves, so there’s a lot to build on. I asked our defensive team yesterday in the meeting, “All right, you have to tell me.” Was there anything different? Did they try to do something different, did we call it different things? All of a sudden, they start moving the ball. The reality is – they showed me the tape – they had a fluke third down with the ball wobbling from one end to the other, and it was the most important play of practice. And they had a good run. But seeing us get that fourth save was really encouraging, and the way we found a way to finish should help build confidence moving forward into an even tougher stretch of games we have coming up.

“Jarquez’s (Hunter) performance, one of the best in school history. I think those are the most rushing yards in SEC play in Auburn history, that’s what I’ve been told. Fourth in school history, and his second half performance was the best in school history. This is great for Jarquez. I think he took the lead in rushing into the SEC after the game. He will be announced today as Offensive Player of the Week. Too Tall (Izavion Miller) will be announced as offensive lineman (of the week), then Keldric Faulk, defensive lineman. So it looks like we won those awards this week, that’s good to see. And I think Jay Crawford is the national freshman of the week. He’s getting better and better. So a lot of good things. Obviously excited for our fans, many of them made the trip. It was quite astonishing to see. I’m used to it now. We have the biggest fans. I’m really excited to be back at Jordan-Hare after what feels like a year, and we’ll need it on Saturday. We need them to make some noise on Saturday and make it difficult for the opponent coming here, which is Vandy. And obviously, they’re playing at an extremely high level right now.