"Late" Night Chatter

Hey everyone. Evening interviews have ended. Here's the poop.

THE FIVE THINGS

• Gus Malzahn is not anxious about going back to northwest Arkansas: ``I got a chance last year to do that (with Tulsa), so I felt that and all the distractions that come with that with friends and family asking for this and that. This is more of a business trip and the fact that I had that experience last year I think will definitely help this year."
  
  
• Malzahn on Auburn's need to beef up red-zone production after problems at Tennessee: ``I think it's what you focus on and we need to work that much harder. We had a couple opportunities and we're very fortunate our defense was playing extremely well. We've got to find a way to score touchdowns. It was great to get some points, our kicker did a wonderful job, but as an offense we've got to find a way to score touchdowns when our defense gives us opportunities."
  
  
• K Wes Byrum on his 2008 struggles: ``There wasn't really a low point, it was just after missing a couple, it just got tough. Overall, the team wasn't doing well and I wasn't helping at all on my end of it by putting points up on the board when we were struggling. It just got really tough as the season went on to keep missing as we were all struggling as a team."
  
  
• Kodi Burns on last season's loss against Arkansas, which was the first without Tony Franklin: ``The whole year was a disappointment. That game in particular, we had several opportunities to get in the end zone and for whatever reason it didn't happen. That just showed the turmoil and the stress the whole team was under. We couldn't even score on four downs from the 3-yard line. We have another chance this year. Everybody is excited about that."
  
  
• Mario Fannin on Malzahn's attitude this week: ``He's more intense. He's more energetic, and you can tell it's a matter of he wants everything to be perfect. So we understand that and we've got some guys from Arkansas."

BONUS QUOTE

• Malzahn, who was jazzed about the team's last Tuesday practice, on today's workout: ``It probably wasn’t up to what last week was. We’ve got to come out tomorrow and Thursday and really focus in. At the same time, we threw a lot at them. Arkansas gives you a lot of different looks and we want to make sure we’re prepared."

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University

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