Tigers need to be more physical

By Charles Bennett

AUBURN – Auburn has a lot of problems to solve heading into Saturday’s SEC opener against Mississippi State, and Tigers’ coach Gene Chizik hopes many of them can be corrected by the simple act of playing more physical.

Call it the “shut up and hit somebody” approach.

“If we don’t do anything else better, we better be more physical than we were last week,” Chizik said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “Again, you can look at the physicality of our special teams, and it is more in line with where we need to be. Our special teams are made up of offensive players and defensive players, same guys that play on offense and defense, so we have it in us. We have to be that on both sides of the ball when it comes to offense and defense.”

Auburn’s problems in last week’s 42-38 season-opening victory over Utah State were most evident on defense.

The Aggies moved the ball at will against the Tigers, rolling up 448 yards in total offense, 27 first downs and had four scoring drives of 14 or more plays. Utah State was 10 of 17 on third-down conversions.

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY READ WEDNESDAY'S ANNISTON STAR