The 2016 season has been one in which head coach Gus Malzahn and the Auburn football team has relied heavily on the Tigers' defense. Oklahoma players and coaches have taken notice of the Auburn defense, and are very aware of the advantage the unit gives the Tigers.
Sophomore linebacker Deshaun Davis, who grew up just 150 miles from New Orleans, is one of the factors that has made Auburn’s defense so tenacious. Davis is now confident and eager to play in the Sugar Bowl and share New Orleans with his teammates.
"I'm the tour guide," Davis said.
The 5-foot-11 linebacker was redshirted in his first season on The Plains and saw limited action last season. Davis is now a prominent member of the Tiger defense, and has recorded just under 60 tackles on the season.
Davis insists that the Tiger team is ready to take on the Sooners, but is enjoying sharing the city with his teammates.
That includes the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, where Davis has been a spectator at various college and professional games before his time at Auburn.
"It's surreal for me to be on that field," Davis said. "It's an NFL field. A lot of the guys, we talked about it all week, we have a dream to play in the NFL and just getting that opportunity to play on an NFL field this early [is special]."
It was not an easy road for the Tigers, however. Playing on an “NFL field” did not look likely for the Tigers after a slow start to the season, when the Tigers lost two of their first three games.
"We hit a big winning streak in the middle part of the year and I feel like that's key to why we're here now," Davis said. "We earned this and it showed our team that we can handle adversity. We started out 1-2, everyone stayed on task; we didn't point any fingers, we just knew we had to go out and fight. It showed our team what we were made of."
Davis takes pride in what the defense has accomplished this season and realizes that defensive success has not been a luxury Auburn has enjoyed in recent seasons.
"For years, it's always been about Auburn scoring 30 or 40 points, but giving up 31 or 41 points and still losing," Davis said. "We came in this year with a standard to hold teams to 18 points. We held up to that."
Davis and the 8-4 Tigers understand what a bowl game of this magnitude means for this team and the program moving forward.
"It's really important, especially going into next year,” Davis said. “We got a lot of guys coming back, pretty much the same team, wanting to get better. You don’t want to have that bad taste in your mouth all offseason. We're trying to get that 'W' and get a lot of momentum going into next year."
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