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\u201cI want to commend our guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought our guys did a great job. We got a lot of work done, worked on some specific things in all phases of the game, and I feel like we got better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tigers host Southern Conference repeat champion Mercer Saturday. The Bears will bring a nine-game winning streak to the Plains and a 5-0 record away from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cMercer does a tremendous job,\u201d Durkin said. \u201cWhen you look at their performance on both sides of the ball, they\u2019re first nationally in total offense and second in pass offense and fourth in scoring. They\u2019re putting up a lot of points, throwing the ball down the field. They have an extremely talented freshman quarterback that\u2019s doing a really good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of quarterbacks, Auburn will play both Jackson Arnold<\/a> and Deuce Knight<\/a> against Mercer while Ashton Daniels<\/a> sits to preserve his redshirt status.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s tremendous for this program and also for him,\u201d Durkin said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to put together a great plan for both these guys to have success, and I told the team it\u2019s their job to rally around them, and I know those guys will.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the whirlwind week leading up to the Vanderbilt game, Durkin and offensive coordinator Derrick Nix<\/a> have had more time to adjust to their enhanced roles before Auburn plays Mercer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think in this game we\u2019re a lot more settled into what the new norm is and what that looks like, for me in particular as well. I believe that carries over to our players,\u201d Durkin said. \u201cThat was certainly helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n With a home Iron Bowl looming next Saturday night, Auburn\u2019s sole focus remains on this week\u2019s challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s critically important, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be a problem for them,\u201d Durkin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been game planning and preparing for this game. We understand what\u2019s coming down the road, but it has nothing to do with this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n While continuing to coordinate Auburn\u2019s defense, Durkin makes time to check in on the offense as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important the team understands that you are present on both sides of the ball and supported in every way,\u201d he said. \u201cI think Derrick Nix<\/a> did a great job preparing our offense. He and I have a lot of conversations about what the plan is, what we want it to look like. He does a great job of executing from that plan.<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe that it\u2019s important that everything we do is as a team and brings it together. It\u2019s not offense, defense, it\u2019s just our team. We say it all the time and mean it, believe it. This is our team; it\u2019s not any one side of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n Auburn (4-6, 1-6) welcomes Mercer (9-1, 8-0) to Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday at 1 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. Play-by-play voice Andy Burcham, analyst Jason Campbell<\/a> and sideline reporter Bret Eddins<\/a> form the Auburn Sports Network broadcast team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n AUBURN, Ala. \u2013 Auburn made the most of its open date after playing overtime against Vanderbilt, says interim head coach DJ Durkin. \u201cI want to commend our guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought our guys did a great job. We got a lot of work done, worked on some specific things in all phases of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-Opening-Drive-Auburn-vs-Mercer-Auburn-Tigers.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10748,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746\/revisions\/10748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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