Auburn a much improved team, Tuberville says

GAINESVILLE - Despite its two losses this season, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said the Tigers are bringing a much better team to Gainesville on Saturday than the one that lost to USF earlier in the season.

Tuberville said a big part of the team's early struggles stemmed from the fact the Tigers were putting too much pressure on their defense with costly turnovers.

"We’ve left our defense on the field way too many plays in the first four games,'' Tuberville said. "Some has had to do with our defense not being able to get themselves off the field, but most of it has been in terms of turnovers. We had a turnover 10 times in two games. That’s a lot of extra repetitions for the defense. We’re pretty good on defense, but if you’re put out there that many more times, then you’re going to have problems. Last week we cut down on the turnovers, we only had one fumble snap, there was no fumble by the running backs. Our running game was better last week, which cuts down on the time of possession your defense is out on the field. Now we were playing New Mexico State and we weren’t playing Florida, so that’s also a concern. But our game plan every week is to try to get your defense off the field, control the football. And when you’re playing a potent offense like Florida, that’s everybody’s game plan. So we’ll put that back into effect this week and see if it works as good as the last game.''