After dropping from the Associated Press poll following a 45-10 loss to the No. 1 LSU Tigers away in Baton Rouge, La., last weekend, the Auburn Tigers are looking to heal bruised spirits with a victory over the Ole Miss Rebels Saturday evening.
"We're excited about being able to come back home and play another night game here at home," said coach Gene Chizik. "It'll be exciting. We've been gone the last three out of four weeks against some tough road opponents, so it's always nice to come back home and play in front of our home crowd for a 6 o'clock game."
Since 2000, Auburn is 24-4 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in night games that kick off at 6 p.m. or later.
The Tigers return home for only the second time in five weeks to enter their 36th meeting with the Rebels. Auburn leads the series with a 29-6 record.
"We have a great challenge for us this week," Chizik said. "We're playing an Ole Miss team that is extremely talented. It's the best 2-5 team in the country. They're very dangerous, and they're very good in a lot of different ways."
While Chizik had only positive things to say about the opposing team, Ole Miss is 0-4 in the Southeastern Conference so far this season.
The Rebels have lost 10 straight games against SEC opponents dating back to last season.
Auburn has won eight of the last 10 games against Ole Miss and shut out the struggling team 51-31 away in Oxford last October.
"This is a very good football team," Chizik said. "They were probably a play here or a play there away from winning five or six football games.
"They had a touchdown against Georgia called back on a punt return. They were a play away from beating Arkansas and BYU, so again, I think the record is not indicative of how good they are.
"They have a lot of speed, a lot of athleticism, and we're going to have to play really well to be able to come out with a victory, but we're excited about the challenge."
Based on Chizik's comments at Tuesday morning's weekly press conference, it seems sophomore Clint Moseley will continue as the starting quarterback ahead of junior Barrett Trotter against Ole Miss.
Moseley had been on the bench until two weeks ago, when he replaced Trotter at halftime during the Florida game.
"I think when we gave him time to throw, he did some nice things," Chizik said. "I think there are some things he could have done better and improved on, obviously.
"For his first game and being in an environment like that playing against a defense that was as good as they were, and him being under stress as much as he was, I think when he had opportunities to make plays, I thought he did a nice job of that.
"He'll continue to improve, I don't think there's any question about that, and we expect him to do that this week."
Chizik is hopeful that Moseley's confidence will enable him to make smarter desicions on the field and to remain collected under stress.
"That's one thing that I can say I'm extremely proud of him," Chizik said. "During the game when things didn't look good and things weren't going our way, I never saw anything in the game that indicated to me that he was losing confidence or didn't feel like he could get the job done.
"I felt the same way Sunday just watching him. I expect the same thing in practice today. I'm real proud of the way that he carried himself and handled all the adversity that we had and encountered Saturday. I feel like he did a great job with that."
Junior wide receiver Emory Blake will remain out for his fourth consecutive game after sustaining an ankle injury against South Carolina earlier this month.
Chizik was reluctant to state that Auburn's active receivers have been able to effectively compensate for Blake's absence.
"I think it's been too sporadic," Chizik said. "I think it's been very sporadic. At some points, you see these really nice catches, and other times you see them drop balls in their hands.
"I would like to see more consistency in terms of catching the football from all of our receiving group.
"The fact of the matter is, like any place on your team, when somebody is out, somebody has to step up to the plate with consistent play.
"I'm not saying they haven't done anything good, I'm just saying the level of consistency from that group that we are going to need to win games needs to be better."
The fact that sophomore safety Demetruce McNeal and senior safety Neiko Thorpe lead the team in tackles isn't an issue for Chizik, but it does question the effectiveness of the rest of the defensive front.
"Our goal is obviously to get better every week," Chizik said. "Whether our safeties are the top three tacklers or they're in the bottom three, I don't think that necessarily tells the tale because a lot has to do with what type of offense you're facing or tackles down the field after completions, or are they tackles 'cause their runs broke the line of scrimmage consistently or are they runs that they are making at the line of scrimmage 'cause they were outside the wide plays and they did what they were supposed to do?
"So I'm not really into all the stats and who gets what particularly when it comes to the tackles because you don't really know how they unfold.
"I'm concerned when the other team is scoring points. I'm not really concerned with who's making the tackles."
The game will be televised by ESPNU.
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