Auburn Knows the Importance of a Bye Week

As a fan, bye weeks can be frustrating. We want to see our favorite team play every week. We want to see them do battle on the field and emerge victorious.

Bye weeks take away the joy of seeing our beloved teams in action. It’s frustrating.

Unless you’re on the team with a bye week, with a break from the grind of a football game. A little known fact about bye weeks is that they can mean the difference between improvement and deterioration, between a strong finish and a sloppy close to the season.

If utilized correctly, and with proper placement, bye weeks hold an incredible amount of value. And Auburn knows this.

The second bye week of Auburn’s 2014 season couldn’t have come at a better time.

After a deflating 38-23 loss on the road to now top-ranked Mississippi State, Auburn found itself looking for answers.

Caught in a hostile environment, amidst scattered torrential downpours, horrid rattling of cowbells, and Gameday buzz, Auburn committed careless turnovers and penalties at the most critical moments of the game. They were never out of it, but failed to ever get out of their own way.

It was Auburn’s first loss of the season. And now they have a chance to take beat, gather themselves.

Last season, the bye week following a loss to LSU was the turning point in Auburn’s season. Most people will point to the win against Ole Miss at home, or taking down Texas A&M on the road as the moment when Auburn became the team that ran for over 500 yards against Missouri.

Everyone always forgets about the bye week.

Before the break, Nick Marshall knew about half the offense, and struggled severely with his accuracy. The coaches were still operating a tailback by committee, splitting carries between Tre Mason, Cameron Artis-Payne, and Corey Grant.

Overall, the team was not quite in sync yet, and a tough road game in terrible weather conditions exposed that.

But that team had heart, and even then, we saw signs of resilience that would become a trademark in Gus Malzahn’s Auburn Tigers.

All it took was for the pieces to fall into place in the execution. And fall into place they did.

After the break, Tre Mason started to take over as the star tailback, and after the Texas A&M game, caught fire. Nick Marshall had been transformed into the best operator of the read option I’ve ever seen in my life.

After Auburn had a week to work out the kinks, they went on an unprecedented run through an epic Iron Bowl, its second SEC championship in two years, all the way to the national championship.

I’m not saying that this year’s script will play out the way last year’s did. Frankly, I don’t think we’ll ever see another season like 2013 for Auburn ever again, out of anyone.

It was a special combination of players, out to prove that they were more than a 3-9 laughingstock, and once the pieces fell into place, they were one of the best teams in the nation.

I don’t think it’s fair to compare this year’s team, let alone any team, to last year’s Auburn team.

But I do think that after this bye week, Auburn will come fast out of the gate. They’ve been here before.

I’m not just saying that because they just suffered their first loss. Or because it was on the road against a ranked SEC opponent. Or because it was raining that day. Or because they turned the ball over early and often, and found themselves in a 21-point hole in the first half.

Auburn knows how to recover. Auburn knows how to learn from its mistakes. Auburn knows how to take a week off to reevaluate itself, and make necessary adjustments.

And I don’t know if there is anyone better making adjustments for the second half (in a game or a season) than Gus Malzahn.

Expect Auburn to finish strong. They have the capability, the motivation, and now, the final preparation for the home stretch.

This bye week is all about Auburn figuring out where they are halfway through the season, and taking the steps to get where they want to be.

The remaining schedule is difficult, but the Tigers have a lot of depth and talent, and because of their experiences last year, they know exactly what can happen when you finish strong.