from the man they named the field after. copypasta al.com
The Auburn Tigers nearly pulled off a stunning upset Saturday night thanks in large part to a much improved defense, something former Auburn head coach Pat Dye said was a surprising but welcome change.
"I knew that we needed to play a game against a team like LSU," Dye said on his weekly segment on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network. "I wanted to just see what the responses and the reaction was going to be from a team that had been in disarray, offensively and defensively."
"We're all disappointed in not winning. It wasn't a moral victory or anything. But there wasn't an Auburn person that wasn't proud of the effort on the field Saturday night. Defensively, I thought we played as hard as any football team I've seen at Auburn in a long time."
"The losing doesn't bother me as bad as just not playing hard like we should have been in some previous games. The defense might have been confused and young but it still didn't look like the Auburn teams of the past that were good defensive football teams. We did look like it Saturday night. It was one of the most amazing transitions I've seen. From where we were defensively (before Saturday) to where we were Saturday night, I don't think I've ever seen a team make that much change that fast."
As for the other side of the ball, Dye said Auburn's offense will continue to struggle until the Tigers can find a way to take some of the pressure off of starting quarterback Kiehl Frazier.
"Kiehl Frazier's struggling at quarterback. At some point in time, he's got to grow up and make a few plays. Hopefully we can get good enough running the football to take a little bit of pressure off of him and not count on him to win football games for us."
Dye said he came away unimpressed with LSU's offense and said he now believes Les Miles' squad could be headed for a multiple-loss season.
"I think they've got a good chance to lose to Florida in Gainesville. I voted them No. 5 in the Legends Poll."
"Their offensive line is not as good as it's been. That was evident with the ammount of pressure that we got on the quarterback. You've got to get good plays off the passing game and they didn't complete a big pass on us Saturday night."