The Auburn Tigers opened up the season with a thrilling 17-16 win over the Baylor Bears in which Eric Winters made a goal-line stop on Matthew Klopfenstein on 2-point try to win the game.
Following the meeting, here are Alex Golesh’s top quotes he gave, reflecting on the game.
On the importance of defense and turnovers:
“Creating the turnovers defensively was huge. Eric winters absolutely huge there at the end. You can use whatever cliche you want, game of inches. It most certainly is in every way.”
On the toughness of Baylor:
“I think overall you certainly are glad that you can coach off of a win. I do think that there's a lot to be said about going and playing a good football team week one. I think that's a really good football team in the sense that they will go and have a lot of success in that league. They play really hard. The quarterback is a tough, tough -- if you've got any question on how tough that kid is, like I said earlier in the week, I don't know him, but he got banged up early, and that is a tough, tough football player. I've got to find a way to tell him that I truly feel that way.”
On the mentality of Eric Winters:
“Yeah, it's -- for a young cat, he's special. He really is. But he works like that. That's how he practices. That's how he comes in the building every day. It's the same person every day. For a guy in his second year, he's special.”
“We gave him the game ball, career high in tackles and finishing the way he finished, a little bit -- inside that locker room a little bit ironic because we literally just talked about it last night. I said you're going to make a play that makes a difference in this game. I just sense it. He certainly did. Pretty special for a young cat.”
On the differentiality of Baylor’s defense, especially compared to last year:
“It certainly looked different. I thought there were some elements of it. When they guessed shot, they guessed that we were going to push the ball down the field. You saw some two high. I thought they did a good job of feeling like they could load the box and allowing some underneath stuff.”
On getting the first-win feeling in Atlanta:
“I know I get to sit up here and talk about it. It's never going to be about me. It never has been. Humbled and just continually humbled to be the head football coach here. I'm going to work as hard as anybody to continue to turn out wins. That's the only thing that matters. That's what I was hired to do while continuing to mentor a bunch of kids that need it.
“I don't know. We'll enjoy it. Get to watch the film on the way home. Enjoy it with my crew tonight, come in tomorrow and get ready for Southern Miss. We've got to go be better next week.”
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
