More Tidbittage for your brain

Hey everyone. What a swell day here in Montgomery, where it's sunny and 72 degrees. I enjoy days like this.

I was in a bit of a hurry last night, so let's take a deeper look at some things that have been said this week.

• Gus Malzahn on how he's going to improve things: ``Any time you're with a new offense the first year, you're learning them. You're putting in what you think we can do successfully -- what they can do successfully. Each week, you're evolving to how you think the offense should be. To answer the question, yes. The same thing happened the first year at Tulsa and you've just got to make corrections. It's more about us just executing a little bit better."
  
  ---->HABOTN says: I don't understand all the talk about execution. I know it's important for the coaches to establish, for the players' sake, the belief that execution always is the problem. Yet, honestly, do you believe that? Do you think Chris Todd would pass better if more attention was paid to execution? Would routes be more open?
  
  
• Malzahn on if Auburn's struggles affect him personally: ``It should motivate you. It should motivate all of us to do better. If we're all competitors, that's what I challenge our offense to do. We've got to step up and find a way to help our team win. That's what competitors do. We're looking forward to this next game. We're looking forward to redeeming ourselves and we've got to find a way to do that against a very good defense."
  
  
• Josh Bynes breaking down Saturday's game: ``LSU is going to run the football first. That’s what they’ll try to establish -- and that’s something will try to shut down to be successful. That’s what you’ve seen all year: A lot of teams that have been hanging with LSU have been penetrating their gaps, stopping their runs. The key to the game is to try to let the quarterback beat us."
  
  
• Lee Ziemba on playing at LSU: ``I don't dread it at all. I don't dread anything, going to play anywhere. That was a good game my freshman year (in 2007). I enjoyed playing there in that big stadium as a young'un . It was unfortunate what happened, but we have a good game plan and we want to down there and show that we're a good team. And show that not only can we compete, but we can beat these guys. We know we can beat these guys."
  
  
• Ben Tate on the possibility of a team-wide emotional meltdown: ``This year we’re a lot more together. We’re a family. We believe in each other and we believe in these coaches. I can’t see us having a big collapse and spiraling down and out of control like we did last year. I can’t see that happening."
  
  
• Michael Goggans on the first thing that goes when a player gets tired: ``It does reach a point where you just get very fatigued out there and your body starts to wear down, but it's more of a mind thing. You know you don't very much depth behind you, so you've just got to go in there with that mind-set, that you've got to push through it. We can't use that as an excuse. We've just got to learn to finish."
  

Photo credit: Dave Martin/Associated Press

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.