A disappointing end to a challenging season

AUBURN | A coaching change, seven starters out and only four practices to prepare for the Citrus Bowl.

It’s not a recipe for success and it showed in Auburn’s 35-19 loss to No. 14 Northwestern Friday afternoon in the Citrus Bowl.

“Ain't gonna lie, it was real, real, real challenging,” said senior defensive lineman Big Kat Bryant. “You know, if we'd have came out with the win, it would've been a great story. But man, it was really tough. Because a lot of guys had checked out when they found out some guys wasn't playing.

“Me being a leader, I think I told somebody yesterday — man, it was tough, me being a senior, you know, wanting to play, but it was like a lot of guys that had checked out.”

The Wildcats scored two early touchdowns before Auburn answered with two field goals to go into halftime down 14-6. The Tigers struck for a touchdown on a 57-yard pass from Bo Nix to Elijah Canion to cut the lead to 14-13 early in the third quarter before Northwestern put up 21 unanswered points.

Auburn’s next two possessions ended near midfield with J.J. Pegues being dropped for a 2-yard loss on 3rd and 1, forcing a punt, and Bo Nix being stopped for no gain on 4th and 1.

“I think we lost our edge,” said Kevin Steele, who was named interim coach after Gus Malzahn was fired Dec. 13. “After we went for it on fourth down there and missed it by a couple inches, we didn’t go back out with the same edge we’d play with all day. I think that had something to do with it.”

Auburn was without running back Tank Bigsby, wide receiver Anthony Schwartz and right tackle Brodarious Hamm on offense, and defensive tackles Tyrone Truesdell and DaQuan Newkirk and defensive backs Roger McCreary and Christian Tutt on the other side of the ball.

While Steele recognized the adversity that his players have been through the last three weeks, he wasn’t using that as an excuse for the loss.

“We're Auburn football and we're never going to make excuses for who's out there and who's not out there. It's next man up,” Steele said. “It doesn't matter if it's COVID, injury, opt out. That's not going to -- we don't do that. It's next man up.”

Auburn finishes the 2020 season 6-5 with its sixth loss in its last eight bowl games.