After Saturday's 45-21 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn still has to continue to improve, head coach Gus Malzahn said.
"The great thing about a first game is usually you improve more from the first game to the second game than you do all year, and that is what we have to do," Malzahn said.
Malzahn mentioned the pass rush.
"We definitely need to get better at pass rush, and I think back this time last year it was a lot similar, and we got better each week, so that is what we will work really hard to do," Malzahn said.
After responding well to their SEC matchup in week one and moving up one spot in the AP Top 25, the Tigers want to improve on some things before they play San Jose State Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Senior Reese Dismukes feels good about the offensive line as a whole, but believes they can execute better in the future.
"When you got five new guys working together, it is going to take time to get completely gelled and know what everybody is going to do out on the field in certain situations," Dismukes said. "It just takes reps."
The Tigers are confident in senior Nick Marshall and sophomore Jeremy Johnson throwing the ball after they combined to complete 72.7 percent of their passes and averaged 13.3 yards per attempt Saturday.
They were pleased with the passing game. D'haquille Williams posted nine catches for 154 yards, the highest receiving total for any Tiger since the 2010 SEC Championship Game.
Malzahn feels good about his 1 and 1A in the backfield after they recorded 234 yards rushing in the second half. Seniors Corey Grant and Cameron Artis-Payne finished their runs strong, are getting more comfortable and are making it clear they want to do it all, Malzahn said.
He thought communication was good on the left side of the offensive line in the first game.
"Our players deserve a lot of credit because coaches can have all the adjustments they want, but the players have to go out there and execute the adjustments," Malzahn said. "I was very proud of our players on both sides."
The Tigers were also impressed by the adjustments their secondary was able to make after halftime.
"We had a little jitters coming out in the first half," senior Jermaine Whitehead said. "It took a minute for us to start back clicking, but when we finally got in at halftime, we decided it was time to come out and play Auburn football. Hopefully that second half was a reflection to the rest of our season."
Taking the positives and correcting mistakes they made in Saturday are how the Tigers intend to approach each game and get better each week.
"We got to figure out a way to get better each week, each practice," Malzahn said.
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