VRBO CITRUS BOWL: AUBURN VS NORTHWESTERN

December 30, 2020

Kevin Steele

Camping World Stadium

Auburn Tigers

Q. I wanted to ask you about your defense, a guy who came up was Zakoby McClain and his effort this year, what can you say about his performance this season and what have you seen out of your D-Line this year?

KEVIN STEELE: Yes, as far as Zakoby, No. 1, he's an outstanding young man. Great family. Comes to work every day, infectious personality in a positive way, on the field, off the field -- a high-energy guy and his nickname is Ricochet Rabbit for a reason; it's an old cartoon, a bounce-around guy that never was still. Very productive obviously, and that's kind of the way he plays football. Very productive obviously with over a hundred tackles. That's hard to do. He's a very, very good football player.

As far as the defensive line goes, we've been a work-in-progress with a very, very talented group of young men; that it would have been beneficial to have had spring practice. We didn't have that in terms of replacing the starters we've had. And they have grown throughout the year and have become very effective and improving all the time. So we have got a good group. There's a pretty big group of numbers there and they are all very talented and have good D-Line strengths for SEC football.

Q. Talk about this has been a strange season for these kids with COVID and all that stuff and then a strange month for these kids at the end. Just talk about what you've seen from them and how they have coped with all that stuff.

KEVIN STEELE: Yeah, we've really talked about in this light: You know, experiences in life come in different ways and experience is not what happens to you. The experience is what you do with what's happened to you.

And these guys have adjusted, been flexible: Well, we're not going to have spring practice; well, we are going to move it back; well, we are not going to have it; we are on Zoom calls. Everybody knows that scenario of just, we're going to play a game, we're not playing a game, this is who we are playing and now we have got another opponent, just all kinds of change on top of the same SEC schedule.

So these guys have been very, very resilient. They have gained experience that will pay dividends for them for the rest of their life in terms of how they -- they are finishers, they are fighters and they are true Auburn men, and that's kind of what this group is. I think they will forever be remembered by this coaching staff and by each other as people you can depend on and they fight through adversity.

Q. Curious why you didn't consider elevating one of your assistants to be the acting defensive coordinator for this game.

KEVIN STEELE: Well, it's because we just had a short, condensed week of doing that. I'm the defensive coordinator. We have a head coach, so I'm the defensive coordinator, and I think it was just better to keep it the way we've done it all year.

Q. Obviously this Bowl season is much different because of opt-out guys. Have you guys had some, anybody that's not expected to play in the game?

KEVIN STEELE: Well, Schwartz and Mark-Antony Richards, for sure.

Now we have some other guys and I'm not going to disclose that because I take a little bit more of an NFL approach of not letting the opponent know exactly what, but we have some guys that are injured, and we have some guys that are in COVID protocol that may or not be cleared from Dr. Goodlett.

It's a work-in-progress because we've had guys in and out of practice. We've got some just regular football injuries that we're dealing with. It's going to be a little bit mix-and-match possibly. We may get some of those guys back. We may not get them back. And so it's kind of touch and go in terms of what we will have.

Q. You mentioned the COVID protocols. As acting head coach, do you have any reentry numbers that you can provide us?

KEVIN STEELE: Yeah, I mean, I don't know the specific numbers. I've kept up with who is at practice and who is not, but I'm not at this point in time, I don't have them in front of me. So I would be giving you misinformation trying to remember.

Q. Ladarius Tennison started at Mississippi State. Just wondered how he played, and do you see him starting in the Bowl game? And also, the secondary, are you guys going to be up to full speed in the secondary for the Bowl?

KEVIN STEELE: Ladarius played really, really good. He played like a starter. We do see him starting at the star position in this game. He really has just progressed and is a very good football player. Yes, we see that.

What was the other part of your question?

Q. I was going to ask you about the secondary.

KEVIN STEELE: Yeah.

Q. Healthy? You're ready to go in the secondary?

KEVIN STEELE: We're a little banged up. Sherwood is probably the biggest question. He had a little ankle injury and so he's a little bit of a question but there's a chance. There's a chance.

Q. I know you were talking about possibly moving an off-field coach into an on-field role for this game. Is that something you still foresee happening?

KEVIN STEELE: We did that, actually, just for a game day headset. And then we had a positive graduate assistant and so we had to get someone in that could coach the scout team.

So Brandon Fisher is going to move on to the active coaching roster. That's more for a headset reason and communication on game day than it was actually coaching or coaching practice, because he helped run the scout team. But game day, we needed him on the headset because we are down one with the headset, obviously.

Q. You've had a week to prepare. How did you go about it, and are they similar in any fashion offensively to any teams you've encountered in the SEC in recent years?

KEVIN STEELE: In terms of their scheme, they are a little bit like Georgia schematically. And maybe in some ways Kentucky. I would say most similar would probably be Kentucky in terms of schematically. They are very, very, very well-coached. They play extremely hard. They do not beat themselves. They execute very well.

Q. How do you compartmentalize preparing for this game and weighing the uncertain future with a new coaching staff coming in and whether or not assistants will be retained and all that?

KEVIN STEELE: Right. Well, that's a good question, and it is compartmentalized. There's the personal side of it and it involves your family and the other families on the staff and then there's our players.

This has got to be all about the players and helping them be successful on game day. We'll cross that other when it's time -- that bridge, when we get to it. We are not to that. We have to get through this game and represent Auburn well and give everything we have to Auburn and to players here, and don't allow anything else to be a distraction. I mean, we owe that to each other as a team, as a team, as a staff, to each other. And it's really not as hard as what people might think it would be.

Q. How much contact have you had with Coach Harsin and has he been out there watching any of the practices?

KEVIN STEELE: Well, it's been minimal because obviously he has a lot on his plate. So he's doing what he does and we're doing something totally separate and they are not joined at this point in time.

But I've seen him around the building, and then we've had -- he had a Zoom conference call with all of us. And then he's been around some of the players. I think it's good that they are getting to see him and get a feel for him.

But other than that, it really has not, you know, been in terms of -- he's here. So he's kind of involved in the Bowl. He's allowed us to keep that totally separate from him.